[Info-vax] OT: book from George Dyson.

[George Cornelius]

Richard B. Gilbert wrote:
> On 4/6/2012 1:11 PM, George Cornelius wrote:

>> P.S. Another bit of history: Iowa State University is
>> now considered to be the correct patent holder for some
>> of the key Eniac patents, per court rulings in the 80's,
>> I believe. [...]

> ISTR that patents have a limited life; something like 17 years.  That
> may be renewable, once only, for an additional 17 years.  A lot of those
> early patents have expired or soon will expire.

I meant it in a bragging rights sense, but at the time of the
ruling the Eckert and Mauchly patents may have still been in
effect.

Wikipedia makes a a stronger statement about the ruling than
mine, and gets the date right:

"In 1967 Honeywell sued Sperry Rand in an attempt to break their ENIAC 
patents, arguing the ABC constituted prior art. The United States 
District Court for the District of Minnesota released its judgement on 
October 19, 1973, finding in Honeywell v. Sperry Rand that the ENIAC 
patent was a derivative of John Atanasoff's invention."

  and

"Judge Larson explicitly stated, 'Eckert and Mauchly did not themselves 
first invent the automatic electronic digital computer, but instead
derived that subject matter from one Dr. John Vincent Atanasoff'."

George