Newsgroups: comp.robotics
Path: brunix!sgiblab!swrinde!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!world!srctran
From: srctran@world.std.com (Gregory Aharonian)
Subject: Robotics software patents from 1992/93
Message-ID: <CJ36o3.FH6@world.std.com>
Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA
Date: Tue, 4 Jan 1994 03:50:26 GMT
Lines: 147


                         TITLES TO 2700 SOFTWARE PATENTS
                             ISSUED IN 1992 and 1993

                                 Greg Aharonian
                          Internet Patent News Service
                         P.O. Box 404, Belmont, MA 02178
                             patents@world.std.com
                                  617-489-3727

    In January and February, the Patent Office is holding hearings in San Jose
and Washington on the "problem" of software patents.  The hearings will focus
on two aspects: the nature of software patents (legal, economic and software
theory), and the process of awarding software patents (in particular, software
prior art).  To help these hearings be more empirical, I have prepared a list
of 2700 software patents issued in the past two years.  It should help people
base assertions in the actual statistics of issued software patents (of which
there are over 11,000).

     The patents listed below were issued in all of 1992 and the first half of
1993.  The list is based on what I consider to be a software patent, though it
does reflect the nature of software patenting in the US, and does include
software patents from all categories of software for which patents are being
sought.  And given the Patent Office's classification scheme for software
(which they are revising), this was not a very easy list to compile.

     Despite the tremendous numbers of software patents being issued (with
respect to the small numbers of true software innovations each year), software
patenting as of yet is not a really big socioeconomic problem, though unless
the software community acts now, it will become a big problem.

     A series of diskettes with more detailed information on each software
patent listed below (full title, number, assignee, abstract, classification,
application date) are available for $595.  Also provided are diskettes with
9000 titles from my software prior art database, and version 1.0 of my patents
claim analysis program.  Proceeds go to my project of making the Patent Office
APS patent text files Internet accessible.

     For more information on the Internet Patent News Service, send  'help'
in the body of a message to   patents@world.std.com   on the Internet.

==============================================================================

     I use 42 categories of software patents, listed below, though a few are
so big that I will probably split them up.  Some patents are listed in more
than one category to simplify your search for relevant patents.  Many of the
titles have been abridged without losing their meaning, to fit on one line.
Some titles start with '--'.  This indicates the assignee is IBM.  I do this
because IBM has 1/8 of all software patents, has made money off its software
patents, and it is interesting to see their software patenting strategy.


                        IMAGE PROCESSING
                        OPERATING SYSTEMS
                        NETWORKING and COMMUNICATIONS
                        PROCESS CONTROL and NUMERICAL CONTROL
                        GRAPHICS
                        GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACES
                        DATABASE
                        WORD PROCESSING and DOCUMENT HANDLING
                        FINANCIAL
                        COMPUTER AIDED SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
                        ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE and EXPERT SYSTEMS
                        ENGINEERING
                        CIRCUIT DESIGN / COMPUTER AIDED ENGINEERING
                        NEURAL NETWORKS
                        SECURITY AND ENCRYPTION
                        MULTIPROCESSING
                        PATTERN RECOGNITION
                        MEDICAL AND HEALTH
                        SIGNAL PROCESSING
                        SPEECH RECOGNITION and SYNTHESIS
                        COMPRESSION
                        NUMERICAL ANALYSIS
                        COMPUTER AIDED DESIGN
                        AUTOMOBILE
                        OFFICE AUTOMATION
                        GEOPHYSICAL
                        NATURAL LANGUAGE ANALYSIS
                        CHARACTER RECOGNITION
                        PARALLEL PROCESSING
                        BIOLOGY
                        VISION
                        DISTRIBUTED PROCESSING
                        ALGORITHMS and DATA STRUCTURES
                        OBJECT ORIENTED PROGRAMMING
                        ROBOTICS
                        FUZZY LOGIC
                        SIMULATION
                        EDUCATION
                        PHYSICS
                        CHEMISTRY
                        SPREADSHEETS
                        VIRTUAL REALITY

   What follows are the robotics patents.  The full list is being posted to
comp.software-eng, misc.legal.computing, misc.int-property.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

				ROBOTICS

Control arbitration system for a mobile robot vehicle
Interference avoiding system of multi robot arms
Robot control method
Control method and apparatus for a robot having multi-rotating axes
Robot teaching/playback system
Control for a group of robots
Controlling a set of industrial robots for cooperative operation
Open circuit detection for a pulsed resolver position sensing system
Stopping an industrial robot
Programmable controller for industrial robots
Mirror image method for use in a robot
Method of controlling articulated robot
Robot control method
Controlling robot motion at and near singularities
Obstacle avoidance for redundant robots using configuration control
Control system for an industrial robot
Interactive system for the mathematical representation of physical models
Anti-collision and collision protection for multiple robot system
Control method for robots
Path planning method for mobile robots
--Image-directed robotic surgery including redundant consistency checking
Industrial robot system


==============================================================================

              WHERE TO SEND YOUR COMMENTS ABOUT SOFTWARE PATENTS


     Those interested in presenting written comments on the topics presented
in the supplementary information, or any other related topics, should address
their comments to the Commissioner of Patents and Trademarks, marked to the
attention of Jeff Kushan.  Comments submitted by mail should be sent to
Commissioner of Patents and Trademarks, Box 4, Patent and Trademark Office,
Washington, DC 20231.

     Comments may also be submitted by telefax at (703) 305-8885 and by
electronic mail through the Internet to comments-software@uspto.gov.  Written
comments should include the following information: - name and affiliation of
the individual responding; - an indication of whether comments offered
represent views of the individual's organization or are the respondent's
personal views; and - if applicable, the nature of the respondent's
organization, including the size, type of organization (e.g., business, trade
group, university, non-profit organization) and principal areas of business
or software development activity.
