On Fri, 9 Oct 1998, Sam Ismail wrote:
> 4942516 : Single chip integrated circuit computer architectur
> Issued: Jul 17, 1990
> http://www.patents.ibm.com/details?&patent_number=4942516
That's the one. So, what was the story with Hyatt? My understanding is
that nobody holds a valid patent for the microprocessor.
Here's a NY Times article from 1990 when Hyatt attempted to collect
royalties based on his 1968 work:
http://www.me.utexas.edu/~me179/topics/patents/case6articles/case6article1.html
Here's an interview with Ted Hoff, including an analysis of the Hyatt
patent:
http://www-sul.stanford.edu/depts/hasrg/histsci/silicon%20genesis/tedbody-ntb.html
I'm not a lawyer, but it sounds like Hyatt's patent was thrown out on a
technicality:
<<
As reported at 52 BNA's PTCJ 209, on May 10, 1996, the
Commissioner of the PTO held that the prevailing applicant and
prior inventor of an invention for a computer on an integrated
circuit chip was properly denied a judgment because he elected to
convert his application into a statutory invention registration.
Claims in a Gilbert Hyatt patent 4,942,516 for a computer on a chip
were declared invalid in an interference proceeding in September,
1995. Gary Boone of Texas Instruments, Inc. provoked an
interference with the Hyatt patent by copying claims of the '516
patent into his pending application, which claimed a priority date
of July 1971.
>>
-- Doug
Received on Sat Oct 10 1998 - 06:05:35 BST