[DotGNU]Hartmut on: Pseudo-Patent-Free Microsoft Standard

[Seth Johnson]

(Forwarded from Patents list, address@hidden)

-------- Original Message --------
Date: 06 Apr 2002 10:02:57 +0200
From: PILCH Hartmut <address@hidden>

> (Microsoft just can't cope with the idea that standards are
> supposed to be used by everyone.  So they are hooking up
> their patents via their license.  We simply can't turn our
> back on them for one second.  -- Seth Johnson)
> 
> http://www.advogato.org/article/453.html

The CIFS specification seems to be based on two trivial and
broad problem patents from the early 90s which cover all
communication between 2 computers where data are directly
stored from a remote location into the data buffer of a
program and the transmission doesn't use headers.

These claims look so ludicrous that there is hope that they
would not stand a court proceding.  If you can afford
litigation, the result might well be that the court narrows
down the claim scope somewhat but yet upholds some of the
subclaims.  I guess that would be enough for MS to maintain
its grip on the proprietary standard which it is pushing
onto the Net.

Here are some of the details:

US 5,265,261

filed 1993

Claims
 
1. A computer implemented method in a computer system for
transmitting data
   from a server computer to a consumer computer connected
by a virtual
   circuit, the consumer computer having an application
program requesting a
   read from the server computer, having a redirector, and
having a transport,
   the application program having access to a data buffer
allocated by the
   application program, comprising the steps of: allocating
and initializing a
   receive network control block for directing the transport
to store the next
   data it receives directly in the data buffer;
transmitting from the
   redirector to the transport a read request to read data
from the server and
   said receive network control block for directing the
transport to store the
   read data directly in the data buffer, the read request
indicating that the
   read data should be transmitted without a header; in
response to the step
   of transmitting, sending the read request from the
transport to the server
   computer; examining and recognizing that the read request
indicates that
   the read data should be transmitted without a header;
storing the read data
   in a data block without the header; transferring the data
block from the
   server computer to the transport in response to the step
of sending the
   read request; and in response to the read request and the
receive network
   control block and in response to the step of
transferring, storing the data
   block directly from the transport into the data buffer.

2. The method of claim 1 that includes the step of ensuring
that no requests
   to transmit data on the virtual circuit are pending
before the read request
   is transmitted.

3. The method of claim 1, including the steps of: locking
the data buffer
   before transmitting the read request to ensure that the
data buffer remains
   accessible until the read request is satisfied; and
unlocking the data
   buffer after the read data has been stored in the data
buffer.


US 5,437,013
 
priority date 1993

very similar content and claims:

1. A computer implemented method in a computer system for
transferring data on
   a network from a first computer to a second computer
connected by a virtual
   circuit, the second computer having an application
program, a transport
   implementing network communications and a redirector
implementing a system
   message block protocol, the application program having
access to a data
   buffer, the method comprising the steps of: under control
of the
   redirector, initializing a network control block; and
directing the
   transport of the second computer to store the data that
it receives next
   directly in the data buffer pointed to by the network
control block instead
   of a system message block buffer in the redirector; under
control of a
   transport of the first computer, transferring the data
without a system
   message block header containing information about the
data from the first
   computer over the virtual circuit to the transport of the
second computer;
   and under control of the transport of the second
computer, and upon
   receiving the transferred data, storing the received data
directly into the
   data buffer of the application program.

2. The method of claim 1, including the step of under
control of the
   redirector, ensuring that no requests to transfer data
from the first
   computer to the second computer are pending so that data
without a system
   message block header can be transferred from the first
computer to the
   second computer.

..

Unfortunately we still do not know about the EPO situation
concerning these Microsoft applications.  As usual, the US
patent doesn't contain information on a parallel EP or WO
patent application.  Yet these could very well exist.   In
1993 the EPO was already granting patents on the most
abstract mathematical methods, and of course the above claim
language looked "technical" enough for the EPO to consider
it not pertaining to a programming solution as such --
indeed it is more a problem than a solution that is
claimed.  Also, an application from 1993 would most likely
have been granted around 1998 by the EPO.

For research into this, you may want to use

        http://www.depatisnet.de/
        http://www.espacenet.com/
        http://www.delphion.com/

Using a few key words from the two US applications (such as
Microsoft, "inventor"'s name, text strings from the claims
etc) should get you there.

As MS is using these swpats for its crusades against the
GPL, We need to document this stuff quickly and thouroughly,
see also

        http://swpat.ffii.org/news/index.en.html#m023E

and some help would be very much appreciated.

-- 
Hartmut Pilch, FFII & Eurolinux Alliance              tel.
+49-89-12789608   
Protecting Innovation against Patent Inflation      
http://swpat.ffii.org/
100,000 signatures against software patents     
http://www.noepatents.org/