Okay, that’s it, the U.S. patent system is fucked up. Someone patented the linked list:
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.
A quick, simple, and not completely factually correct primer for anyone with no CS background: a linked list is basically where you have a series of objects that contain references to the next object in the list (and sometimes to the previous object; this is a doubly-linked list). An example would be if you walked up to me (I’m an object) and asked me where my coworker sits. I know where they are (the reference), and following my reference pointer (pun fully intended, C++ nerds may laugh now) you would find the next ‘object’ in the ‘list’ - my coworker.
Here’s the retarded part:
The date on the patent? Filed September 26, 2002; granted April 11, 2006.
The linked list? Developed in 1955-56.
I cannot stress how absolutely dumbfounded I am that this patent has been granted. Linked lists are a fundamental structure in computer science for doing any sort of list processing. It’s one of the primary data structures in Lisp. It is in textbooks everywhere; I did at least six implementations in my first two years of college.
I’m not a lawyer, so maybe someone can clue me in: is the USPTO not required to do any research for ‘prior art’ (or whatever the hell you’d call it in this case) and just rely on the idea that the first one to patent something is the first person to come up with it?