Re: [DotGNU]Microsoft prohibits GPLed work via licensing of CIFS standards

[Rhys Weatherley]

Seth Johnson wrote:

> Anybody know what these two patents cover?

I searched at:

http://patft.uspto.gov/netahtml/srchnum.htm

Patent 5,265,261, granted Nov 23, 1993:

    Method and system for network communications
                  using raw mode protocols

                               Abstract

    A method and system for sending data from a first computer
    through a communications line to a second computer. The second
    computer includes a redirector, a transport, a data buffer, and an
    application program. The method and system provides the
    transport with a read request to send data from the first computer
    to the second computer, and with a receive network control
    block which directs the transport to store the next data it
    receives directly in the data buffer. The transport sends the
    read request to the first computer. The first computer stores
    the data identified by the read request in a data block without
    a header. The first computer transmits the data block over the
    communications line to the transport. Using information
    contained in the network control block, the transport stores the
    requested data without the header directly in the data buffer.

Seth posted the patent text, so I won't include that here.

Patent 5,437,013 has an identical abstract, with a grant date
of July 25, 1995.

I think they may be the same patent, filed twice in error.
The second has a disclaimer on it saying it doesn't apply
after Nov 23, 2010, which would be 17 years from the grant
date for the first patent.

I haven't delved into the patent claims yet to see what these
patents actually cover, and how they differ from each other.
The abstract is pretty generic.

Cheers,

Rhys.