Microsoft Applies For .NET Patent

Wojina writes "Microsoft has applied for a comprehensive patent on what appears to be the entire implementation of the .NET CLR (Common Language Runtime) and the framework APIs. Microsoft's CLR is an implementation of the CLI (submitted to ECMA for standardization). Does this bode ill for the Mono project? See the CNET News story." And a chaser: Nept points to this interesting Microsoft-funded .NET obfuscation project.

Erm, isn't it just a virtual machine?

[Gordonjcp]

I think Donald Knuth has prior art.

Al Gore will have something to say about *that*!

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh wait, you said dotNet, not interNet!

Sorry, nevermind...

What a joke

[Anonymous Coward]

Looks like they are patenting. The concept of client server computing.

Well it looks like we all owe them everything.

Where should we send the check?

Re:hmmm

[Anonymous Coward]

Hell, IIS opens *all* your computing resources to the distributed computing system

Other Details...

[Fringe]

The wide-ranging patent surely includes...

• The Blue Screen Of Death
• The 200-page EULA in a 5-line scroll-pane
• Solitaire as a Productivity Application
• FUD as a revenue-centre

Didn't they invent Al Gore also?

Patent is ludicrous

[$$$$$exyGal]

21. A system as recited in claim 19, wherein male person inserts a penis into the female person. The female person's insertion point (herein referred as "vagina") shall accumulate the male person's semen until such time as the male person has entered the completion phase. This completion phase is what enables the spawning of child persons.

The above is just as rediculous as the real thing.

--sex [slashdot.org]

Raise your hand

[Teckla]

Please raise your hand if you thought Microsoft was going to allow .NET to be a reasonable and viable platform on non-Windows operating systems!

All of those raising your hands, please contact me. I have an exciting opportunity for you. I'm trying to get some money out of Nigeria.

-Teckla

Re:Linux?

[Jeremi]

Yeah, like the US Patent Office is really choosy about what they'll accept [itworld.com] in the way of patents.

Re:CNET Article Text

[Anonymous Coward]

Dude, you really should not post the entire text of articles. It shows a total disrespect of copyright laws and is liable to get you fired someday, Anonymous Coward or no.

Re:CNET Article Text

[tuba_dude]

I don't know if the spelling mistake was intentional or not, but the irony of it makes it impossible not to comment... assertain... beautiful.

.NET?

[chunkwhite86]

And here I thought .NET was a code obfuscation project!

Re:CNET Article Text

[enos]

Do you honestly believe that we're going to slashdot CNet?

Re:What a joke

[chunkwhite86]

Where should we send the check?

You can PayPal it to [e-mail]

Or you can go to CompUSA and plunk $579 on Office XP Professional. It all ends up in the same place.

Re:Name Changing

[Anonymous Coward]

umm - .COM?

maybe like:

Internet Explorer

SQL Server

C umm - Sharp

word umm - just word, drop the perfect part

You would think that they could at least inovate a product name. Rename MONO .COM and then submit a patent.

No biscuit

[AirLace]

I don't see how this can fly. Mono has prior art on pretty much all of this.

Re:hmmm

[silvaran]

You start by claiming the sun, moon and stars

You're absolutely right. They're going to work on the stars next year.

Re:Raise your hand

[Anonymous Coward]

Tell me more about this money in Nigeria-thing.

Miguel

Re:Can you patent the inventions of others?

[gmuslera]

1. Patent patents
2. Sue USPTO
3. All your patents are belong to us
4. Profit!

Re:Prior Art up the Wazoo

[AndroidCat]

Java's bytecode is a slower version of their own "portable code" and CLR

And that probably owes inpiration to the USCD p-Code and p-Machine. Which probably owes something to something else... More begats than the Bible!

Re:What a shock!?

[Thing 1]

Perhaps because one day mono will be able to run .Net applications (which MS so obviously wants everyone to run).

New MS slogan: ".NET ain't done 'til Mono won't run."

Re:Okay

[Anonymous Coward]

Also From Mono's FAQ

Question 666: Will Mono ever be genuinely useful enough that Microsoft takes note?

No. Mono will be permanently between 60 and 75% complete. This should be enough to allow toy applications to run and advocates to trumpet our success, but far enough away that no Windows-oriented .NET software is ever successfully ported to Mono. Thus ensuring that Microsoft does not "cut off our air supply", if you know what we mean.

Furthermore, we are sure that if some contributors ever bring us closer than 75-80% to source or binary compatibility with Microsoft .NET (c), that Microsoft will introduce a raft of new APIs and features ensuring that our compatibility level will drop back below the required threshold. Because Microsoft learned at the knee of IBM, we are fairly certain that they will not let their products stagnate in a manner similar to AT&T's UNIX(tm).

We've taken our inspiration from the other wunderkind Microsoft compatibility project, Wine. As most have noticed, Wine has avoided any legal or marketing attention from Microsoft due to systematic lack of useful compatibility. If RMS be with us, we achieve the same.

Re:uhhhhh

[Doug Neal]

You're American, right?

This is a pound sign: £

# is not. It's a hash. Most Americans seem to be confused on this, I hope this post clears it up :P

Besides, "C Pound" just sounds stupid.

I'm sorry, I think you have the wrong site.

[zjbs14]

This is Slashdot

Facts and balance have no meaning here. We're only interested in hysterical postings about how evil Microsoft is.

For instance, the fact that Sun owns several Java-related patents (including one that covers any 3-tier db applications) is meaningless. We like Java because it's not Microsoft and could care less that it's not open, GPL'd, or standardized even though we usually bitch about things that aren't.

Re:uhhhhh

[frankthechicken]

Besides, "C Pound" just sounds stupid.

I don't know, sounds like Microsoft's lawyer's usual tactics.

Re:hmmm

[AndroidCat]

MS will just patent Darkness

They might have a case for that one. :^)

Re:Wow, they are patenting RPC and Web Browsers

[dnoyeb]

Hehe, I worked with a lawyer at my company with a coupla workmates filing a patent we came up with for my company.

When we entered the room, we knew what it did, and the lawyer had no clue. When we left, we had no clue, and he seemed to be telling us what it did.

He really did research and stuff, real work he put in. But still its quite funny. They are English Obfuscators.

Re:Linux?

[shepd]

>You do realize that C doesn't include a standard GUI API, and that many programs require GUIs these days?

I suppose they didn't include one because they didn't want to pull a "java" and rewrite the GUI language all the time, making old code trash.

At least I can still compile K&R's "Hello World" test on GCC 3.0...

Re:Linux?

[Anonymous Coward]

when the old language was dangerous (buffer overflows, anyone? how about accidentally writing over array bounds?), then yes, they did. fucker.

Re:Patent is ludicrous

[MeanMF]

Unfortunately, Slashdot is about the last place to go looking for prior art for this one...

Re:And a collective exclamation of "STUPID"

[Synn]

Naw, dude. I talked with Bill the other day and he SAID it was cool.

He wouldn't lie to me, would he?

Ah, I love the smell of evil in the morning.

[gstaines]

Bill Gates, gets out of bed and can smell something in the air. His lawyers have been busy overnight. "God! I love the smell of EVIL in the morning" says Bill

News Flash: "A new anti-trust law passed today requires microsoft ship its software with a new scratch and sniff sticker on all of its products. Lawmakers apparently want consumers to be able to smell the Evil that is Microsoft before making their purchases" But Chairman Bill Gates likes the smell so much that he is painting he new estate in florida with a paint modeled on the scratch and sniff stickers.

News Flash later that day: Microsoft is reportedly trying to aquire a patent on the smell of evil, The odor of fear and the stench of stupidity, all reported important for its next product release.

Re:hmmm

[Ryan Amos]

They're having trouble with the moon. Seems that a little-known government agency known as "NASA" went there before Microsoft even existed, thus claiming the moon before Microsoft ever did. Microsoft engineers are currently working on a magic time machine to overcome this obstacle.

All your moonbase are belong to us.

Re:It's an octothorpe, silly!

[commodoresloat]

So you're saying we should call it Coctothorpe?

Re:What a joke

[samoverton]

Microsoft patent,
Client-server computing.
We owe royalties.

Re:hmmm

[Anonymous Brave Guy]

They're having trouble with the moon. Seems that a little-known government agency known as "NASA" went there before Microsoft even existed, thus claiming the moon before Microsoft ever did.

In other news...

Microsoft have recently announced funding for a new research project into the history of space travel. This will build up to culminate in a series of "one-off" TV shows hosted by former X-Files cast members, which will prove conclusively that man has never been to the moon.

A court case against NASA is expected to follow shortly, alleging that other "one-off" TV shows hosted by the same former X-Files cast members and describing man's visit to the moon were faked, and that Microsoft's reputation as the number one supplier of moon-based products has been irreparably damaged.

We now return you to our regularly scheduled Microsoft bashing.