Uhoh, someone got the patent on O/R mapping...

http://www.freshpatents.com/Mapping-architecture-for-arbitrary-data-models-dt20050303ptan20050050068.php (via Yves Reynhout)

Too silly for words, if I might add. The patent description is so incredibly vague, almost every piece of software which even smells it would map something seems to fall under this 'invention'. One good example why software patents should never be implemented in Europe.

Edit It seems to be Microsoft who has acquired this patent. Now, if only some old-aged smalltalk / Java guys would step forward and say "Prior Art!"

10 Comments

  • And given that the "inventors" (sic) include Luca Bolognese and Andrew Conrad, it likely belongs to Microsoft.



    Sure, they "invented" (rather, developed) ObjectSpaces, fair enough. But they didn't invent the underlying "principles" described in the patent. That is so ridiculous.



    Software patents not only ought to be prevented in Europe, they should also be forbidden in the rest of the world. Honestly, what are they thinking?

  • Lol, that's laughable. I searched for a few names of the "inventors", and from brief inspection they seem to be Microsoft staff.



    They must be quite proud of themselves for inventing the whole Mapping Architecture thing. How very very clever and original ;-)



    MS probably only took the patent out for defensive measures, it's just so very sad that companies have to waste time and money on such things.

  • Interesting to see how all the "Inventors" seem to MSFT employees ... hmmmm

  • One word - Ludicrous.

  • doesn't prior art (wilson or mapper, your stuff, LLBlgen, and so forth) completely invalidate the patent?



    its my understanding that it does, if the bonehead ever tries to extort money...

  • No, LLBLGen Pro or wilsonormapper aren't prior art, Objectspaces is quite old. The real prior art is in the java world and smalltalk world. O/R mapping is pretty old, and widely documented. You can't make me believe MS thought of it before the java guys did.



    It will be interesting to see what the big guys at Apple, Oracle and Sun will have to say about this 'patent', because their products all violate it.



    More ironic is that the Objectspaces wasn't inventive in any way. Everything in objectspaces as presented in 2003 was already done elsewhere years ago.



    Luckily it's indeed MS who got the patent, which uses it for defense, but what if they feel threatened by Java that much that they will put this patent into gear to crack Hibernate's strong grip on the java world?

  • Cases like this one are almost arguments in favor of patents. They make companies who claim them so stupid...

  • I hope you have read some of the other database related patents in freshpatents.com... there is really a lot of stuff to laught at

  • So hopefully this won't have any effect on the beloved LLBLGen mapper.



    This patent stuff is f~cking ridiculous

  • @bill: I hope not either, but for now I think we're all pretty safe in O/R mapper land :)

Comments have been disabled for this content.