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Reed-Solomon codes are math | 234 comments | Create New Account

Comments belong to whoever posts them. Please notify us of inappropriate comments.

Reed-Solomon codes are math

Authored by: hardmath on Wednesday, November 14 2012 @ 06:29 AM EST

However clever and nonobvious and sorthy of credit the Reed-Solomon codes
are, they are an abstract idea (math) and unprotectable subject matter. To
apply them to reliable transmission of data over a noisy channel is an
invention, but one anticipated by Claude Shannon's work at Bell Labs in the
fifties.

In my view any software implementation can only embody abstract ideas and
those in themselves are not patentable subject matter. The computer which
executes software is indeed an invention and potentially so patentable
(though the prior art is by now extensive). It should be crystal clear to any
detached thinker that combining a novel program with off-the-shelf hardware
neither constitutes a new patentable invention nor an infringement of patents
as to combing said software and hardware.

It is simply what the computer was designed for, going back to well known art
of the 20th century and earlier.

---
Recursion is the opiate of the mathists.

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

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