Subject:
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Re: Lego patent issued
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.cad
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Date:
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Wed, 4 Sep 2002 14:36:44 GMT
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Viewed:
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676 times
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In lugnet.cad, Mike Walsh writes:
> "Erik Olson" <erik@olson.pair.com> wrote in message
> > Well folks, this is not cause for alarm, but Lego have got their software
> > patent on how they store model files:
> >
> > US6389375: Virtual reality modelling
> > Published 5/14/02 Filed 1/14/99
> >
> > The "novel idea" for which they have received patent protection is: in a
> > data strcture (read: model file format) the location of a piece is
> > represented by *integer* coordinates, plus a compact set of numbers
> > indicating a transformation of that coordinate system.
>
> Storing database coordinates in integer format is pretty common in CAD
> tools, at least in my industry (Electronic Design Automation). My company
> (Mentor Graphics) sells one tool suite where the database in stored in
> tenths of nanometers. Every coordinate is an integer (or series of
> integers), just really big ones!
I forced myself to read some more claims in the patent last night.
Yuck! Look at claim number 19. They seem to be attempting to patent
fetching parts on the fly over the internet. Something has to be done
about this foolishness!
How old is the car.dat file from the old time ldraw pages? Take a look
inside it. What kind of numbers do you see? All integers. I'd say
that's some prior art right there. The parts are all positioned at
integer locations, however the parts themselves are described in
floating point coordinates. That's the crux of the patent, and it
was done long before filing date.
Maybe they should hold patent examiners responsible for damages from
invalidated patents. Then we wouldn't be able to find anyone to do
the job and the whole system would collapse. Good riddance.
Don
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Message has 2 Replies:
 | | Re: Lego patent issued
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| A better example would be a model which references a subfile on the plane of an open hinge. The crux of the patent is transformation of a coordinate system. Specifically an integer grid coordinate system. CAR.DAT doesn't have anything like that (the (...) (22 years ago, 4-Sep-02, to lugnet.cad)
| | | Re: Lego patent issued
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| From the "prior art" section, the discussion of "what a skilled practitioner in the art would know as VRML" is unbelievable. I wonder if the writer made these claims in ignorance of the process that became VRML97, or was not even passably familiar (...) (22 years ago, 5-Sep-02, to lugnet.cad)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: Lego patent issued
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| "Erik Olson" <erik@olson.pair.com> wrote in message news:H1vK31.DJ8@lugnet.com... (...) [ ... snipped ... ] Storing database coordinates in integer format is pretty common in CAD tools, at least in my industry (Electronic Design Automation). My (...) (22 years ago, 4-Sep-02, to lugnet.cad)
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