From phm@a2e.de  Fri Apr 20 12:47:47 2001
From: phm@a2e.de (PILCH Hartmut)
Date: Fri, 20 Apr 2001 13:47:47 +0200 (CEST)
Subject: [Patents] EPO patent on format-independent numstr handling
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.33.0104201341440.15466-100000@mulix.oas.a2e.de>

The EPO patent

        http://swpat.ffii.org/vreji/pikta/txt/ep/0803/104/

granted to "Object Tech Licensing Corp (US)" (a patent brokerage company?)
in 1997, claims any oop method that allows format-independent handling of
numeric strings, providing the capability of recognising different formats
and assigning them to the object that contains the appropriate scanf
method.

The problem is claimed first as a device and then, in dependent claims, as
a "computer program product" and "computer program".

-phm



