Someone has just alerted me to the following patent attempt by our friends at IBM:

Data Plotting Extension for Structured Query Language

Given that DBD::Chart predates the filing by at least 7 years (in fact, you can still get a version from CPAN from 2002, and I think BackPAN may have stuff from 2000/2001), I'd like to make sure this thing gets killed. Does anyone know an open source patent holding group, or someplace I can submit prior art claims ?

Considering theres been a searchable webpage since about 2002, and in fact the DLJB is actually rendered using it, its apparent someone is hoping for USPTO laziness.

Update:

After some suggestions (here and elsewhere), I've contacted the EFF in hopes they can provide some guidance.

It also occured to me that PL/R provides a charting capability inside of PostgreSQL, so I've contacted their maillist to see if they have an interest in pursuing a claim as well.

Perl Contrarian & SQL fanboy

In reply to Help! DBD/DBIx::Chart need patent protection! by renodino

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