Patent dispute on off-site archiving - impact on DICOM

The full text of the patent is available here:

[url]http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=6574742.PN.&OS=PN/6574742&RS=PN/6574742[/url]

It was granted June 3, 2003, which is fairly recent.

I haven't read the full patent in detail. However, they do mention
DICOM compatibility as an important part of their invetion, so it would
be difficult for them to prove that DICOM was not prior art. The
details of their implementation may indeed be protectable, or not, but
it is unlikely that this would affect DICOM itself in any significant
way due to the fact that it is clearly prior art.

If the patent had been granted in 1965, or they had not mentioned DICOM
compatibility, then DICOM itself might have a problem.

IANAL. TINLA.

-Kelly

David Clunie wrote:[color=blue]
> FYI ...
>
> I came across mention on Aunt Minnie of a patent dispute over
> the concept of off-site archiving:
>
> "http://www.auntminnie.com/index.asp?Sec=sup&Sub=pac&Pag=dis&ItemId=72792"
>
> which involves this patent:
>
> "http://www.freepatentsonline.com/6574742.html"
>
> David[/color]

Patent dispute on off-site archiving - impact on DICOM - US patent6,574,742