[Haskell-cafe] Re: US Patent for the idea of using Haskell to implement UAX #9

[Stefan Monnier]

>> revealed a link to a US Patent (7120900) for the idea of implementing
>> the Unicode Bidirectional Algorithm (UAX #9
>> http://www.unicode.org/reports/tr9) in Haskell, making use, as far as I
>> can tell, of nothing more than the normal approach any functional
>> programmer would use, namely separation of concerns etc.
> In which case the patent should be null and void since obvious ideas aren't 
> patentable, AFAIK.

Doesn't matter: you'd need to pay lawyers to defend yourself to convince
a court that it is null and void.  So even if you may end up winning in
the end (which is far from obvious), you'll have wasted a lot of time,
effort, and money.


        Stefan