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tc39 / proposal-optional-chaining

https://tc39.github.io/proposal-optional-chaining/
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Will Apple's Patent Regarding `Optional chaining` Affect this proposal? #122

Closed satishbabariya closed 4 years ago

satishbabariya commented 4 years ago

Hello, I have some questions llike, Will Apple's Patent Regarding Optional chaining Affect this proposal?

Here is the patent that includes optional chaining: 9,952,841

ljharb commented 4 years ago

http://www.patentbuddy.com/Patent/US-9952841-B2?ft=true&sr=true seems like the patent for all of swift; which doesn’t seem like it would cover individual features - especially considering all the prior art for this particular one.

satishbabariya commented 4 years ago

It contains this description

Optional chaining is a way to query and call properties, methods, and subscripts on an optional that might currently be nil. An optional value either contains a value or contains nil to indicate that the value is missing. A ‘?’ applied to a type indicates that the type may have a value, or that the value may optionally be nil (e.g., contains no value). Control flow can be performed using optional values, such that if an optional contains a value, the property, method, or subscript call succeeds; if the optional is nil, the property, method, or subscript call returns nil. Multiple queries can be chained together, and the entire chain fails gracefully if any link in the chain is nil.

Ref: https://patents.google.com/patent/US9952841B2/ena

ljharb commented 4 years ago

Such a feature long predates Apple’s patent, however, so that particular item i believe wouldn’t be enforceable.

satishbabariya commented 4 years ago

Hm, okay then that's great.

ljharb commented 4 years ago

(obviously, IANAL)

satishbabariya commented 4 years ago

yeah, i don't know either. but This is very disturbing. Computer languages are not supposed to be owned by any company (ref quote).

ljharb commented 4 years ago

I believe that many languages are patented by corporations; Java, for example.

claudepache commented 4 years ago

Evidently, that patent protects some language, not each feature of it. Indeed, many (most?) features described in that document, including optional chaining, are heavily... inspired from prior art.

(IANAL either, I’m just applying some common sense.)

bterlson commented 4 years ago

TC39 operates as a royalty-free technical committee (RFTC). You can read this agreement here. Speculation about patent issues on a proposal repo is not a productive use of anyone's time.