- MagnetForensics

I'm really at a loss here, there's no evil plan going on behind the scenes, I promise.

I am sure there isn't any, rest assured.

I knew the actual "meaning", it is the why it's "common practice" that was the question, and you kindly provided a nice answer to it:

- MagnetForensics

Companies use it to let people know they have invested some time and money into their work and a patent lawyer has deemed it worthwhile enough (and meets the general requirements) to apply for a patent.

And again, sorry for the OT.

jaclaz
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- In theory there is no difference between theory and practice, but in practice there is. - 

- MagnetForensics

Jaclaz,

Companies use it to let people know they have invested some time and money into their work and a patent lawyer has deemed it worthwhile enough (and meets the general requirements) to apply for a patent.

Jad

Perhaps the phrase "Approved by *insert names of well known forensic clients*" could be less of a panty twister for some people If I saw a piece of software that was recommended by my peers it would make me pay a lot more attention, as we're the people using it and judging its' usefulness based on performance. That's one of the reasons for this forum isn't it, to spread knowledge and help each other out.  

- scuzz

Perhaps the phrase "Approved by *insert names of well known forensic clients*" could be less of a panty twister for some people If I saw a piece of software that was recommended by my peers it would make me pay a lot more attention, as we're the people using it and judging its' usefulness based on performance. That's one of the reasons for this forum isn't it, to spread knowledge and help each other out.

Scuzz, in that case; ive been using ief for the last two years, and i have to say its great at what it does. We use it regularly.  

Are software patents really moral? Stealling trade secrets is illegal (I hope). Doing something in a similar way to someone else is evolution/flattery. Developing a tool to solve the same problem is a commercial choice. It also helps the whole community to advance.

If the F1 key as a general 'Help' key was subject to a patent, the whole world would be a sader place.

A patent takes a long time to be granted - by which time the world has moved on. Also, the application will also have moved on. The replacement for tablets and iPads might be common place by then. The PC might be 'dead'

Why should a process to be subject to a patent? A few years ago I was involved in a potential patent application that would have stopped my old product being used. The application looked like the application manual for my product that had been in the market for 15-20 years, and concepts that were not totally new when I developed them in the mid 1980s. The application disappeared, but should never have been started.

Patents have their place in the world, but I don't think they are part of software packages.
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Michael Cotgrove
www.cnwrecovery.com
cnwrecovery.blogspot.com/ 

Jad
Thanks for the trial offer. We use IEF a lot here, infact I was alerted to the 'Patent Pending' notice from the banner when I first fired up version 5.7.

I'm curious to see what the patent is for, IEF is carving records, what can be so novel for it to be a) worth patenting b) not prevent others from developing their own carvers.

Computer forensics is a discipline that lives and dies on the plurality of the tools available to the investigator and there are a finite number ways of carving records from a computer.

How will patenting an algorithm not affect this?  

sigh, really people.....IEF is a great tool, leave it at that