Include file patent

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Article #2105

#2105

From: Richard Stallman
Date: Thu, 16 May 1991 21:20

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I traced down the source of the story of a patent on include files.
It turns out that the patent belongs to IBM, but include files are not
what it covers.  (At least, I don't think it would cover them.)

The patent is titled "Merging of Documents".  It covers displaying
part of one document within the display of another, in response to a
kind of cross-reference.  This is, of course, a basic idea of
hypertext.  So many hypertext systems would infringe this patent.

This patent might be invalid because of Ted Nelson's book on
hypertext.  However, it may cost a lot of money to prove this.

The patent number is 4,674,040.  It was issued in 1987.

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From: rms@gnu.ai.mit.edu (Richard Stallman)
Newsgroups: gnu.misc.discuss,gnu.announce,gnu.emacs.announce,gnu.gcc.announce,gnu.g++.announce
Subject: Include file patent
Message-ID: <9105162120.AA14443@mole.gnu.ai.mit.edu>
Date: 16 May 91 21:20:58 GMT
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