SAP patents on supply chain management

[PILCH Hartmut <phm@a2e.de>]

SAP, a big loser in the software patent game, is letting their newly
hired patent lawyer determine the position on patent policy.  EICTA is
using him (Dr. Harald Hagedorn) as one of their chief mouthpieces,
because SAP is european.

See

        http://swpat.ffii.org/patents/sap/

Note also that all SAP patents are necessarily business method
patents.  There is a lot around supply chain managment.  SAP's
Hagedorn is basically trying to claim business processes which
everybody in the industry has to use, either because they are the
evident way to go or because SAP can dictate the standard.

Hagedorn vehemently supports the CEC/BSA directive proposal and
especially the amendments from CEU/DKPTO.  The latter vehemently claim
that they do not want patents on business processes.

Here is an example of a recent SAP claim:

http://swpat.ffii.org/patents/txt/ep/1058/902/

   1. A system for storing and processing supply chain planning
   information, said information organized and stored in a computer
   memory for access at a runtime by an application program for supply
   chain planning, said system comprising:an input data containing said
   supply chain planning information about at least one resource, said
   data being inputted, organized and stored in said computer memory,
   wherein the organization of said input data comprises the steps of: a)
   dividing said input data into plurality of activities, each one of
   said plurality of activities representing an individual working step
   in a production process, and being indivisible from a production
   planning perspective; b) grouping said plurality of activities into
   plurality of orders, wherein related activities within same order are
   linked together into at least one network, each of said related
   activities referencing all immediately preceding and all immediately
   following activities in chronological sequence; c) providing a direct
   link to a first and last activity within each said order, said direct
   link stored in a computer memory for access by supply chain planning
   application program during runtime; d) providing at least one input
   interface node for each said order, wherein said input interface node
   represents a material required by said order, each input interface
   node being linked to all activities that require said material; and e)
   providing at least one output interface node for each said order,
   wherein said output interface node represents a material created by
   said order, each output interface node being linked to all activities
   that create said material; wherein each output interface node of a
   first order of said plurality of orders is linked to reference a
   respective input interface node of each subsequent order of said
   plurality of orders, scheduled to require the material associated with
   said output interface node of said first order; and at least one
   application program running on said computer, said program accessing
   and processing said data for supply chain planning by utilizing said
   direct links stored in said computer memory for access to said first
   activity of a desired order within said plurality of orders, and
   thereafter utilizing said links among said related activities within
   the same order to schedule preceding and subsequent activities in
   proper chronological sequence, whereby allowing said supply chain
   planning application to determine and schedule efficiently all orders
   for a given resource, which results in reduction of runtime processing
   and maximization of delivery schedules for said resource.

It's not the broadest one, but it covers pretty much what one would
like to do when managing a supply chain. Maybe Audi or Renault don't
mind being tied even more closely to SAP.  Otherwise they might have
to manage their supply chain with pencil and paper.

-- 
Hartmut Pilch, FFII & Eurolinux Alliance              tel. +49-89-12789608   
Protecting Innovation against Patent Inflation       http://swpat.ffii.org/
130,000 signatures against software patents      http://www.noepatents.org/






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