GCC issues with patent US5297284?

[Jeremy White]

"Bradley M. Kuhn" wrote:
> 
> Hello GCC hackers.
> 
> A few days ago at the FSF distribution office, we got a phone call from
> Jeremy White <jwhite@codeweavers.com>.
> 
> He indicated to me that he is running a free software business, but is
> having trouble because one of his customers is worried that GCC is
> infringing on a particular patent in the USA.
> 
> Meanwhile, there is also a proprietary software competitor who has
> licensed the patent who is actively working against him.
> 
> Could folks on the GCC team assist Jeremy so that he can make the case
> that GCC does not infringe on this patent?
> 

    Just to clarify; the claim is that the implementation of COM
in Wine violates the patent referenced (the vtable patent).  When I did 
a search on this patent, I found a few traces of discussion about it
from 94-95 time frame with regards to gcc.

    So, I was hoping to find someone who remembered the patent
discussion from that timeframe and who remembered the resolution,
if there was one.

    Thanks,

    Jeremy