Re: ARC patent

Tom Lane wrote:
> "John Hansen" <john@geeknet.com.au> writes:
> 
>>>Unfortunately no. The document that inspired me to adapt ARC for 
>>>PostgreSQL is from the USENIX File & Storage Technologies 
>>>Conference (FAST), March 31, 2003, San Francisco, CA.
> 
> 
>>Ahemm,... Isn't the patent lodged on may 20, 2004, AFTER you read the document from the above conference?
> 
> 
> No, the filing date was in 2002.  I'm not sure what the May/04 date means;
> possibly the date of the last activity in that patent file?

Sounds to me like US conferences need to get a disclaimer signed by any 
speakers - "best of my knowledge...covered by no patents/claims/...". 
It's like having a bowl of sweets labelled "help yourself" and putting 
the price sticker inside the wrapper.

--   Richard Huxton  Archonet Ltd