It was awarded in 1999, so the patent is still valid.
I was wondering if anyone at Informix err I mean IBM has looked at it and some of the potential of it... ;-)
Since everyone who's anyone is away at IOD, I wonder if they might spend a few quality moments over a couple of beers and wonder why I would ask about this...
Sure I'm being cryptic, but the key is to look at the patent, what it covers and why would some twisted fsck like me be interested in it. ;-)