MSCP Patent

From: John Wilson <wilson_at_dbit.dbit.com>
Date: Sat Feb 19 22:46:48 2000

On Sat, Feb 19, 2000 at 06:47:10PM -0800, Chuck McManis wrote:
> FWIW, the patent on MSCP, the DEC Mass Storage Control Protocol is
> #4,449,182. I found it and looked it up at www.uspto.gov. It was issued in
> May 1984 so should expire in May 2004 (given the revieed 20 yr rule)

*20* years?!?! When did *that* happen? It used to be 17 so I've been
counting the days until May 2001. And I've been wondering if it really
even lasts *that* long because 4,449,182 is the re-examined patent, they had
actually patented it earlier (applied for in 1981 I think?) but it got shot
down, it certainly seems unfair for someone to be able to extend the length
of their patent coverage for four more years because *they* screwed up.
But of course the more unfair it is, the more likely it is to be the law...

I don't know how they got this patent through in the first place, there's
nothing particularly non-obvious (how *else* would you manage message rings?
even DigiBoards are a bit similar to MSCP and they're just serial ports)
or unique about it and the only thing that makes it "useful" is that they
were able to get a patent on it and lock out the usual aftermarket vendors!

Really, if you read the patent, all it is is a very detailed description of
a particular implementation of plain ol' message queues (plus they tacked
on a listing of an early VMS DU: driver, for no reason that I can see other
than to try to make it seem more complicated), if you describe *anything*
in enough detail you'll be able to come up with some frivolous differences
between it and other similar schemes but that doesn't make it patentable.

N.B. there was some problem with recording the paperwork for the re-examined
patent, the text on womplex is the old version.

Well E11 doesn't infringe anyway (luckily the patent is detailed enough
that it only talks about host and I/O processors that are "substantially
independent" and communicate over a bus), but I was hoping to do some MSCP
hardware one of these days, which *would* infringe if the patent were still
in force. But the whole point of patents is that in exchange for a fixed
monopoly period, you give your invention to the world for free after that
period ends, so MSCP will be free for everyone sooner or later. Same with
that damn LZW patent, it's getting pretty close too!

John Wilson
D Bit
Received on Sat Feb 19 2000 - 22:46:48 GMT