Patent US7028023 – Linked list
Today I wanted to write a new software module, and considered using Linked Lists. To my surprise, while searching for Software Patents (which is common practice before writing a new module), I realized I have to either give up using such lists (and go over the existing code base to make sure no else does), or start paying royalties to LSI Logic.
“Congratulations are in order to Ming-Jen Wang of LSI Logic Corporation who, in patent #10260471 (filed Sep 26, 2002 and granted Apr 11, 2006) managed to invent the linked list. From the abstract, “A computerized list is provided with auxiliary pointers for traversing the list in different sequences. One or more auxiliary pointers enable a fast, sequential traversal of the list with a minimum of computational time. Such lists may be used in any application where lists may be reordered for various purposes.” Good-bye doubly linked list. We should also give praise to the extensive patent review performed by Cochran Freund & Young LLP.” (Slashdot)
Innerlogics 