Yet another 'obvious' patent granted
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I came across this while tuning my asp.net db based VirtualPathProvider. I was looking for examples of how others have implemented db fs's to contrast pros/cons between different designs. http://www.patents.com/File-represented-inside-a-database/US7392263/en-US/[^] It is a generic adapter to provide 'uniformity and/or seamless integration' between two or more file systems (download the PDF to view the schema). Looks similar to every database file system i've ever seen discussed or implemented, although the patent doesn't limit itself to db based file-systems. I find it staggering that such an 'obvious' implementation can be patented. A quick scan found nothing i would consider 'new' or 'inventive'. ...sad days
...cmk The idea that I can be presented with a problem, set out to logically solve it with the tools at hand, and wind up with a program that could not be legally used because someone else followed the same logical steps some years ago and filed for a patent on it is horrifying. - John Carmack