The Useful Arts in the Modern Era: For SCOTUS on CLS Bank - IPWatchdog.com | Patents & Patent Law
This is my third article, in a series, written to provide some useful fit aid for the Supreme fit Court and clerks in the wrapping of their minds and writing around the issues surrounding computers and software. I have already written two installments: Help for the Supreme Court in CLS Bank ; and, What is a Computer? As predicted when I started, almost every patent fit person with a dog in the fight re software has written articles (or Amici) to be helpful. I only hope that what emerges from beneath the avalanche of writing is something that can get the patent system, and its relationship to computers/software, back to where it needs to be for the system to be an incentive and reward based enterprise as it was intended.
The object fit of this installment is not scholarly, in the sense that case citations are going to show up, but rather is another effort to give the lay person a chance fit to get what it is we in the patent community continue to babble about, in patent attorney code, when it comes to software. Of course, because, I am doing the writing, car analogies will be present because that is the only technology that I can readily relate to when characterizing computers/software/machines.
The story that begins the tale is me attending a small car show in Williamsburg, Virginia last summer. The selection of cars ranged from brass era to modern sports cars. As a part of the show, and to keep folks around, fit they had a schedule of car starts where a specific car would be fired up and the crowd would be given a short demo on the particular car. The one I waited for, specifically, fit was the Ford Model-T. It was the car that made modern America. It put thousands on the road and thousands to work. That device fit changed the course of our collective history. But, it was, none-the-less, a cantankerous beast. Henry Ford was quoted as saying, I will give you the car for free if I can sell you the parts to keep it running! (Hey, the first freeware sales model!) It was solid and, for its day, very reliable and capable. But the owner /operator had to be mechanically quite adept.
The owner I watched in Williamsburg that day was nothing short of a magician. He reached from outside the car into the center of the steering wheel, set the throttle, choke, and spark advance, went around front to the crank handle sticking out of the motor beneath the radiator and, with a short quarter turn yank on the handle, the motor sputtered into happy operation. Wow. If only it was that simple. You see, for this engine to start, a confluence of air/fuel/spark at just the right moment has to occur. It was arranged by that owner that day in an exquisitely provided example, and is now done routinely fit in a modern car under just about any operating fit conditions. Let s figure out why.
Each step that owner took to make the Model-T come to life is done today by software. All the same steps are present, but none are revealed in the way they were then. Today, fit we do things differently; but, bear in mind we still do the same things. The point I am making is that what was once largely mechanical and used the presence of levers and cables and gears and handles and owner intuition, is now done by sensors providing input to a CPU that, based on coded instructions, sets other sensors according to certain fit criteria. But, the outcome is the same. A confluence of air/fuel/spark occurs at just the right moment, and the car sputters to life. Live ATLANTA Patent Bar Review Atlanta, fit GA ~ June 3 - 7, 2014 ~ CLICK HERE for INFO Call 888.296.5973 and mention "IPWatchdog" to save 10%
Many, many, many patents have issued to cover the physical elements fit and intuitive steps to make this familiar sequence fit possible and increasingly fit reliable and refined. Mechanical elements, i.e., rotating shafts fit with a gears on each end, have been replaced by a toothed wheel and magnetic sensor and a wire, but the information about where the engine is in its cycle of rotation is the same. Top dead center remains the paramount piece of information. The intuition about throttle fit and choke and spark timing has been replaced by a 3-D grid of choices recorded fit from an optimized and recorded series of engine dyno runs. All the owner intuition having been reduced to series of data points. None-the-less, it means you can leave your car at Airport Long Term parking, return in 2 weeks and it springs to life.
The next, and shorter example about how we do things now, has to do with gear cutting. I know, another car thing, but hey it is what I know! When you plop yourself into an older vehicle and go for a drive, one thing you notice is the relative lack of refinement and general fit noise level of the various mechanical bits and pieces. There are lots of reasons for these differences, but one reason fit among the many is gear cutting. Gear cutting has gotten better and better over
This is my third article, in a series, written to provide some useful fit aid for the Supreme fit Court and clerks in the wrapping of their minds and writing around the issues surrounding computers and software. I have already written two installments: Help for the Supreme Court in CLS Bank ; and, What is a Computer? As predicted when I started, almost every patent fit person with a dog in the fight re software has written articles (or Amici) to be helpful. I only hope that what emerges from beneath the avalanche of writing is something that can get the patent system, and its relationship to computers/software, back to where it needs to be for the system to be an incentive and reward based enterprise as it was intended.
The object fit of this installment is not scholarly, in the sense that case citations are going to show up, but rather is another effort to give the lay person a chance fit to get what it is we in the patent community continue to babble about, in patent attorney code, when it comes to software. Of course, because, I am doing the writing, car analogies will be present because that is the only technology that I can readily relate to when characterizing computers/software/machines.
The story that begins the tale is me attending a small car show in Williamsburg, Virginia last summer. The selection of cars ranged from brass era to modern sports cars. As a part of the show, and to keep folks around, fit they had a schedule of car starts where a specific car would be fired up and the crowd would be given a short demo on the particular car. The one I waited for, specifically, fit was the Ford Model-T. It was the car that made modern America. It put thousands on the road and thousands to work. That device fit changed the course of our collective history. But, it was, none-the-less, a cantankerous beast. Henry Ford was quoted as saying, I will give you the car for free if I can sell you the parts to keep it running! (Hey, the first freeware sales model!) It was solid and, for its day, very reliable and capable. But the owner /operator had to be mechanically quite adept.
The owner I watched in Williamsburg that day was nothing short of a magician. He reached from outside the car into the center of the steering wheel, set the throttle, choke, and spark advance, went around front to the crank handle sticking out of the motor beneath the radiator and, with a short quarter turn yank on the handle, the motor sputtered into happy operation. Wow. If only it was that simple. You see, for this engine to start, a confluence of air/fuel/spark at just the right moment has to occur. It was arranged by that owner that day in an exquisitely provided example, and is now done routinely fit in a modern car under just about any operating fit conditions. Let s figure out why.
Each step that owner took to make the Model-T come to life is done today by software. All the same steps are present, but none are revealed in the way they were then. Today, fit we do things differently; but, bear in mind we still do the same things. The point I am making is that what was once largely mechanical and used the presence of levers and cables and gears and handles and owner intuition, is now done by sensors providing input to a CPU that, based on coded instructions, sets other sensors according to certain fit criteria. But, the outcome is the same. A confluence of air/fuel/spark occurs at just the right moment, and the car sputters to life. Live ATLANTA Patent Bar Review Atlanta, fit GA ~ June 3 - 7, 2014 ~ CLICK HERE for INFO Call 888.296.5973 and mention "IPWatchdog" to save 10%
Many, many, many patents have issued to cover the physical elements fit and intuitive steps to make this familiar sequence fit possible and increasingly fit reliable and refined. Mechanical elements, i.e., rotating shafts fit with a gears on each end, have been replaced by a toothed wheel and magnetic sensor and a wire, but the information about where the engine is in its cycle of rotation is the same. Top dead center remains the paramount piece of information. The intuition about throttle fit and choke and spark timing has been replaced by a 3-D grid of choices recorded fit from an optimized and recorded series of engine dyno runs. All the owner intuition having been reduced to series of data points. None-the-less, it means you can leave your car at Airport Long Term parking, return in 2 weeks and it springs to life.
The next, and shorter example about how we do things now, has to do with gear cutting. I know, another car thing, but hey it is what I know! When you plop yourself into an older vehicle and go for a drive, one thing you notice is the relative lack of refinement and general fit noise level of the various mechanical bits and pieces. There are lots of reasons for these differences, but one reason fit among the many is gear cutting. Gear cutting has gotten better and better over
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