The simplest tool to search patents is Google Patents. Another interesting free tool is Espacenet by the European Patent Office. We will use Google Patents in this post.
Statistics
Note that searching “fortran” will give a few false results, as one inventor and a few companies are named Fortran.
We use the default option “Deduplicate by Family”. See that blog post “The Patent Citation Problem” for more information.
On January 2, 2024, by typing “FORTRAN” we obtain more than 100,000 results (“Keywords match the title, abstract, claims and description fields”). Note also that the help page says “The total number of results (About x results) is only an approximation and may change even for the same query.” And that most of the time, we can expect Fortran to appear in sentences typical of patents (to enlarge claims) like: “subroutines written in Fortran77, Fortran90, C, C++, or other computer programming languages”.
Let’s look for different versions of the language:
"FORTRAN I": 30 (but with false results due to “FORTRAN I/O”)"FORTRAN II": 9"FORTRAN IV": 151"FORTRAN66" OR "FORTRAN 66": 6"FORTRAN77" OR "FORTRAN 77": 759"Fortran90" OR "Fortran 90": 381"Fortran95" OR "Fortran 95": 54"Fortran2003" OR "Fortran 2003": 15299"Fortran2008" OR "Fortran 2008": 14"Fortran2018" OR "Fortran 2018": 0"Fortran2023" OR "Fortran 2023": 0
The surge concerning Fortran 2003 is surprising. It seems related to the activity of Chinese companies:
Examples of patents
Contrarily to standards, patents are freely available.
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Processing of geophysical data, Manus R Foster, Clyde W Kerns, Raymond L Sengbush, US3689874A, Filed: Nov. 12, 1964, granted 1972-09-05.
- A FORTRAN code is available pages 9-10 of the PDF (the “Download PDF” function is in the upper right margin):
A digital routine for performing the processing in accordance with this invention will now be given in sufficient detail to enable those skilled in the art to carry it out. This routine is written in FORTRAN language and the program can be carried out by a number of suitable digital processing systems. As one example of a digital system on which this program has been performed, reference is made to the Control Data Corporation Computer 1604.
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International Business Machines Corporation, Method for improving the efficiency of arithmetic code generation in an optimizing compiler using the technique of reassociation, John Cocke, Peter W. Markstein, US4802091A, Filed 1986-10-31.
- FORTRAN compilers are cited several times in “Background of the Invention” and “Prior Art” sections:
Some of the effects that are described herein have been achieved by other means in even the earliest compilers. In particular, IBM’s FORTRAN I compiler had a very effective strength reduction algorithm to remove multiplications from addressing computations in loops. It has become traditional in FORTRAN compilers to include effective strength reduction.
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Sun Microsystems Inc, Automatic generation of fortran 90 interfaces to fortran 77 code, Paul J. Hinker, Michael Boucher, US6802057B1, Filed: May 3, 2000.
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Fujitsu Ltd, Program and apparatus for translating language, and program converting method, Hidetoshi Iwashita, US7555745B2, Filed: Nov. 18, 2004.
- With many examples of Fortran codes in the figures of the patent.
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US Department of Navy, Dynamic memory management system and method, Damian Rouson, US8010943B2, Filed: Sep. 14, 2007.
- Code snippets in the text of the patent.
If you find other interesting patents, please share them in this thread.