Notation . beadmaster Notation

Comments from the community

October 12, 2003

List of communications

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John Sowa is the leading scholar in cognitive graphs

John said (October 11, 2003)

Paul,

I haven't examined each and every claim in detail, but from just reading the first dozen claims, I can't see what's original about this patent. It sounds like the kinds of things that commercial databases -- relational, hierarchical, network, and object oriented -- have been doing for the past 30+ years.

Following are some comments about some of the claims:

1. A method of employing a computer with input means, memory, and a data processing unit to manage data, said method comprising the steps of: employing said computer to create an original array of data sets, each said data set having a data type element for differentiating one kind of subject matter from another and a data value element for differentiating data sets with the same data type element and said array containing a key data set and > data sets related to said key data set; employing said computer > to link the related data sets in a hierarchy in which the related data sets are each in an indentured relationship to the key data set;

This is certainly what every relational DB implemented for the past 30+ years has been doing. And inverting relationships (which is described in the continuation of claim #1) is standard procedure.

Claims 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 continue to discuss very common methods that have been implemented for years. I'm not sure what point #7 is claiming, but I would be surprised if it were something really new.

And Claim #9 goes back at least 100 years to the idea of an end-of-file marker to delimit multiple files in a box of punched cards:

9. A method as defined in claim 1 in which the computer is employed to insert a data set delimiter at the end of each data set in an array.

Claim #10 sounds suspiciously similar to a topological sort (another algorithm from about 30+ years ago), which would take any hierarchy (tree, lattice, or general partial ordering) and produce a linear ordering that would preserve the partial ordering:

10. A method as defined in claim 1 in which the computer is employed to order the indentured data sets in each data set array it generates in a hierarchial alphanumeric sequence.

I haven't examined the whole list of claims in detail, but from skimming through them, I haven't seen anything that would look new or non-obvious to any student who took a course on data structures in a sophomore computer science program.

John Sowa