Microsoft's 'IsNot' Patent Continued...

An anonymous reader writes " According to the patent application--filed in mid-November by Paul Vick, lead architect for Visual Basic .Net at Microsoft; Amanda Silver, a program manager on the Visual Basic team; and an individual in Bellevue, Wash., named Costica Barsan--the IsNot operator is described as a single operator that allows a comparison of two variables to determine if the two point to the same location in memory." This article continues the tale started last november, and here is an eWeek story on the same subject.

101101 + basic context

[Council]

So what's the smallest pattern of bits that Microsoft can fairly claim to hold a patent on?

In other news, English patented by MS

[IdleTime]

We will all have to pay royalties to MS when using the English language. The fees are based on Scrabble's point system, with 1 cent per point. Pls. sign up at www.microsoft.com with your bank-account or credit card information and will send you our patented verbal-word-counter to be attached to your brain.

Thinking the words are discounted at 10% over spoken words!

Also today...

[Thyamine]

MS announced today their plans to patent the string object, the ampersand, coffee, comfy chairs, and the letter 'T'.

Uh, oh.

[WebMasterJoe]

I'd better finish filing out my patent application for "Is" before MS finds out. It's pretty brilliant, if I do say so. "Is" compares two pointers and returns "true" if they contain the same value.

as was testified under oath

[Anonymous Coward]

It all depends on what the meaning of the word IsNot, is not.

Re:is not

[Anonymous Coward]

is too!

is not!

is too!

hey, this gives me an idea...if two variables are equal in value, then I can invent an new keyword, the "ISTOO" relational operator! I'll copyright/patent/trademark it right away and make millions (billions!?). Why heck, I could probably sue M$ for the use of the equal sign operator...obviously it infringes on my idea.

Patent schmatent

[Anonymous Coward]

If I patent XOR does that make me a great hax0r?

Microsoft patents patenting...

[OwlWhacker]

I'm surprised that Microsoft hasn't tried to patent patenting itself.

That would be no more absurd than some of its other patent requests.

double-you tee eff dawgs

[nil5]

If my patent application for the BitwiseIsNot operator says anything, this one will be rejected. My idea was pretty novel at the time, though.

BitwiseIsNot: a binary bit-level operation that returns 1 in the bits where the two numbers differ and 0 else. I call it BitwiseIsNot.

e.g. 0110 BitwiseIsNot 1111 = 1001.

For each bit you can write it A BitwiseIsNot B = AB + A'B'

If I h ad a patent lawyer and a few million dollars, then I'd surely have gotten that patent.

Re:101101 + basic context

[gmuslera]

So what's the smallest pattern of bits that Microsoft can fairly claim to hold a patent on?

Hey, they could patent 0 and 1, and anything derived from there could be covered by that patent.

Thats nothing!

[CrazyTalk]

I used to work for a company that trademarked the word "xor" (that was the name of the company, now defunct, 450 souls at the height of the dot-com boom). BTW no one (outside of the computer industry) knew how to prononunce xor, so they ran a full-page ad in the Wall Street Journal explaining that it is prononuced "X like the letter, or like the word"

Question

[Loundry]

Will the outcome depend on what the definition of 'IsNot' is not?

Re:101101 + basic context

[kaellinn18]

I'm sorry, everyone... it's too late [funehumor.com].

Actually....

[Anonymous Coward]

and the letter 'T'.

Sesame Street beat Micro$haft to the punch on that one.

Microsoft Patenting Non-Existence?

[WombatControl]

Rumor has it that Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, the Honest Politicians Society and Slashdotters with girlfriends are all filing suit claiming that they're proof of prior art...

In all seriousness, the fact that a patent like this is even entertained is a more than a bit disturbing. How in the world one can patent a logical operator is simply beyond me...

Re:Oh please!

[shenanigans]

In other words, the creation of a Microsoft specific "equals" means that code years down the road will require Microsoft specific tools to edit/change/run this code. I call shenanigans!

Well I can't help you. Stop calling me!

Dear Microsoft, you have competition!!11

[tod_miller]

Dear MS (can I call you MS?)

I heard about your new IsNot, I think it is so elloquent and r33t, but someone has gone and copied you with a '==' object comparator that decides if the references point to the same memory area!

I say sue!

Yours,

A Microsoft Fan-Boy

Europe

[photonic]

It is about time that Europe puts some tough law on software patents in place. Otherwise I fear that VB programmers will emigrate en masse to Europe. Please keep them over there!

Prior art?

[mrogers]

Can anyone explain why IsNot != !=?

Re:101101 + basic context

[The-Bus]

We're a bit too late for that one [att.net]...

Makes sense to me.

[windowpain]

Microsoft IsNot sane.

Microoft IsNot reasonable.

Microsoft IsNot ethical.

Why shouldn't they get to patent "IsNot"?

It depends ...

[kkovach]

... on what your definition of the operator isNot, is. :-)

- Kevin

All we need now

[ch-chuck]

is for the Linux Corporation to patent the IsTo operator and the competition can devolve to a completely childish level.

Re:Ridiculous IP claims have been the death of SCO

[Black Parrot]

> When they're resorting to patenting what appear to me to be boolean operations with an object-oriented twist, that's a bad sign about what real plans the company doesn't have.

Yes, but think how useful it could be in their advertising campaign:

IsNot reliable
IsNot secure
IsNot a good idea
...

Re:Oh please!

[BabyDave]

They're only calling you 'cause they're too polite to call the person they really want. [slashdot.org]

Looks like a good test to me

[Vinnie_333]

If a patent is given for this, then it proves that the patent system is truely broken beyond repair.

Re:Thats nothing!

[chrisvdb]

"X like the letter, or like the word"

But not both?

Re:Oh please!

[Frymaster]

of course, refactoring ms source code to elminate isnot should be easy.

sed -e 's/isNot/!=/g' msCode.c > ./gnuCode.c>

Re:Thats nothing!

[TheRealSync]

In Denmark (and possibly elsewhere, I don't know) they've been pushing the McXimum burger at McDonalds. They keep telling me to pronounce it "Maximum", but it seem obvious you should call it "Mc X Imum". I guess that's what happens when your PR folks have all graduated from Burger University...

Re:Thats nothing!

[Anonymous Coward]

It's pronounced "zor". And that explains why your company went bust.

Re:All we need now

[Anonymous Coward]

I heard IEEE is working on a floating point representation of infinity plus one.

Re:Uh, oh.

[michaelepley]

And I propose my "IsToo" operator. It is an assertion operator. Is can also ne used in conjunction with the "IsNot" operator, where it generates random noise, and terminates randomly with either the result of the "IsToo" operator or the result of the "IsNot" operator.

Re:Oh please!

[dajak]

This computer application implements the isNot operator and therefore violates microsoft's patent.

Obligatory Onion Article

[WaKall]

(From the Google Cache, couldn't find it on onion.com)

Microsoft Patents Zeroes, Ones [64.233.161.104]

Re:Thats nothing!

[Anonymous Coward]

X is a word?