Messages in this thread |  | | | From | (H. Peter Anvin) | | Subject | Re: Patent | | Date | 3 Nov 1999 21:21:18 GMT |
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Followup to: <Pine.LNX.3.95.991103083544.16191A-100000@chaos.analogic.com> By author: "Richard B. Johnson" <root@chaos.analogic.com> In newsgroup: linux.dev.kernel > If anybody's interested, I can provide source-code, dated in the first > part of this decade (1991), that uses the obvious "windowing" mechanism > to set the century byte of the CMOS chip. This is used in the Analogic > 2030 arbitrary function generator. I wrote the BIOS. This source-code > is proprietary, however, to support a petition against MD, it could > certainly be referenced and possibly forced into evidence if a complaint > ever went that far. > > Just because a patent was issued, it does not mean it's valid. If the > patent holder is informed that your use predates his, and it becomes > obvious that there was prior art not cited in the application, the > patent holder will usually issue an "unrestricted license" so that > nobody has to show patent validity or otherwise. >
Actually, the windowing approach was used in PC-DOS 2.0 (1981-or-so): if you enter a two-digit date it is mapped on the 1980-2079 window.
-hpa -- <hpa@transmeta.com> at work, <hpa@zytor.com> in private!
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