Re: more patents on interval arithmetic implementations

[Ulrich Kulisch <Ulrich.Kulisch@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Dan Zuras Intervals schrieb:
> > Date: Mon, 29 Dec 2008 12:27:34 +0100
> > From: Ulrich Kulisch <Ulrich.Kulisch@xxxxxxxxxxx>
> > To: Arnold Neumaier <Arnold.Neumaier@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
> > CC: Bob.Davis@xxxxxxx, 1788 <stds-1788@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
> >         interval <reliable_computing@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, m.zaman@xxxxxxxx
> > Subject: Re: more patents on interval arithmetic implementations
> >
> > Arnold Neumaier schrieb:
> >     
> > > Arnold Neumaier schrieb:
> > >
> > > more patents, not yet mentioned in my previous two mails:
> > >
> > >
> > > Several old patents, two by Kulisch, one by Miranker, and one by Rump,
> > > are related to items 2 and 3 (accurate sum and inner product) in
> > > Section 5.1 of the Vienna proposal:
> > >
> > > - Circuitry for generating sums, especially scalar products
> > >   http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/4866653/fulltext.html
> > >
> > > - Circuitry for generating scalar products and sums of floating point
> > >   numbers with maximum accuracy
> > >   http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/4622650/fulltext.html
> > >
> > > - Systolic super summation device
> > >   http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/4751665/fulltext.html
> > >
> > > - Method and circuit arrangement for adding floating point numbers
> > >   http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/4866651/fulltext.html
> > >
> > >       
> > As far as I understand the matter all these patents provide hardware 
> > circuitries to compute sums and dot procducts of  floating-point numbers 
> > exactly. They have been filed more than 20 years ago and thus should all 
> > be expired. The most relevant techniques are discussed in a more 
> > colloquial English in my book: Computer Arithmetic and Validity, De 
> > Gruyter, 2008. I am convinced that these are the fastest techniques to 
> > compute sums and dot products exactly.
> >     
>
> 	Ulrich,
>
> 	These are relevant to us in that, being expired patents,
> 	the methods described should never be patented again.
>
> 	In theory, anyway.
>
> 	In practice, the patent office has often permitted the
> 	existence of duplicate patents & let them be fought out
> 	in court.
>
> 	I once went to patent something & found 6 existing patents,
> 	one expired, on the idea.  At least 5 of them should not
> 	have been patented but there they were anyway.
>
> 	For what its worth...
>
> 				Dan
>
>   
Dan,

this may be so in the US. I am convinced that you would not get a patent 
on the idea of an expired patent or of other patents or on published 
work in Europe or in Japan.

Ulrich
>   
> > In contrast to these techniques the following and other papers present 
> > fast algorithms to compute approximations of hight quality of the sum 
> > and the dot product of floating-point numbers.
> >     
> > > There are, however, recent alternative (public and better)
> > > implementation techniques by
> > >    Ogita, Rump, and Oishhi
> > >    Accurate sum and dot product
> > >    http://www.ti3.tu-harburg.de/paper/rump/OgRuOi05.pdf
> > >       
> > Best regards
> > Ulrich Kulisch
> >     
>
>