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homas Edison and Steve Jobs are probably the
two most famous examples of people with lots of
patents filed against their name.
But did you know that there are quite a few patents
lodged with the US Patent office that have to do with IT
Service Management and ITIL?
Before we get into that, let’s take one step back and
think about the valuation of companies.
Earlier this year, I had the privilige to meet Andrew
Sherman. He is an IP lawyer from Washington DC and
he specializes in intangible assets and IP valuation. His
statement was that 80% of the S&P 500 Market value is
based on intangible assets.
Examples of these intangible assets are:
• Computerized information (software, Databases)
• Innovative Property (R&D, copyright, licenses)
• Economic competencies (marketing, branding
strategic practices)
These intangible assets go a lot further than “Goodwill”
(for more information on this, check out www.
conference-board.org).
Based on this phenomenon, IP law has branched out
into 5 distinct ‘buckets’:
- Patents
- Trademarks & brands
- Copyrights
- Trade secrets
- Trade dress
In this article I only want to focus on the Patents that are
out there—approved by the US patent office—in our IT
Service Management space.
FUJITSU LIMITED
has a patent on a Configuration
Information management Apparatus (aka CMDB).
Configuration information management apparatus,
configuration information management program, and
configuration information management method
Abstract
A CMDB (configuration information management
database) stores a CI (configuration item) and know-
how separately. A CMDB data update management
unit associates with each set of “property:value” stored
in the CI with related know-how in the CMDB. The
know-how stores a set of “property:value” common to
a number of associated CIs.
IT Service
Management
related patents
T
Ivanka Menken
Patent was approved on December 11, 2012.
IBM Corporation
holds the following patent:
Managing configuration items
Abstract
A computer system that includes a repository, a
discovery section, a determining section, and a data
creating section is disclosed. The repository holds,
for each configuration item, data indicating at least
one predetermined attribute of the configuration
item and a relationship with another configuration
item. The discovery section detects information
on configuration items. The determining section
determines association of a first configuration item
with a second configuration item and association of
the first configuration itemwith a third configuration
item. The data creating section creates common
data including an attribute common to attributes
of the first configuration item associated with the
second configuration item, and attributes of the
first configuration item associated with the third
configuration item and plural derived data items,
each including an attribute that is not common
thereto. The common data and the plural derived
data items are stored in the repository.
Patent was approved on April 17, 2012.
Microsoft Corporation
holds the following patent:
Methods for managing capacity
Abstract
In one aspect, a method of instructing at least
one operator in a best practices implementation
of a process for managing resource capacity in an
information technology (IT) environment isprovided.
The method comprises providing instructions to the
at least one operator to perform acts of: (A) creating
at least one model of at least some aspects of the
IT environment; (B) analyzing at least one model to
determine cost information relating to the modeled
IT environment; (C) applying at least one simulated
use condition to at least one model; (D) analyzing
performance of at least onemodel under at least one
simulated use condition to determine information
relating to at least a utilization of resources in
the modeled IT environment and to determine
resources in the modeled IT environment that
create performance bottlenecks in the modeled IT
environment; and (E) modifying at least one aspect
of at least one model impacting resource capacity
based on the information determined in (B) and/or
(D).
Patent was approved on June 23, 2009.
IBM Corporation
holds the following patent:
Workflow model for coordinating the recovery of IT
outages based on integrated recovery plans
Abstract
One aspect of the present invention provides a
workflow model to effectively respond to outage
events within an IT infrastructure. This workflow
model enables a combination of manual and
automated processing to effectively deploy a
flexible, plannable, and testable recovery to outages
and problems encountered within IT infrastructure
settings. In one embodiment, a shared processing
context is created to accompany the operations of
the workflow, thereby collecting useful data in one
location related to events and status information
during the outage and the outage response.
Within the workflow, analysis of the outage event is
performed, an appropriate recovery plan is selected.
The selected recovery plan is implemented, and
recovery to the outage event is completed. Data
collected within the processing context can be
analyzed to obtain post mortem analysis and
continuous service improvements. Accordingly,
the improvements can be implemented within the
IT infrastructure directly or within the appropriate
recovery plan.
Patent was approved on September 11, 2011.
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