Remembering Paul Fillinich and Licensing C++ from AT&T
3 by WalterBright | 4 comments on Hacker News.
I was sad to hear that Paul Fillinich, an intellectual property lawyer for AT&T, passed away in 2020. I doubt many people are aware of his contribution to the success of C++. Back in 1987 or so, C++ and Objective-C were neck-and-neck in the race to create a better C. I was interested in gaining a competitive edge for my C compiler (Zortech), and wondered which horse to get on. Stepstone owned Objective-C, and had some onerous licensing terms for it. But C++? I made some phone calls, and finally discovered that Paul Fillinich was in charge of IP at AT&T. I contacted him and asked: 1. can I get a license to create a C++ compiler? 2. can I call it C++? Paul laughed. He said nobody had ever asked him a question like this in advance, they usually just went ahead and did things hoping nobody would notice. (Of course, being AT&T's IP lawyer, he did notice.) Paul said sure, go ahead. You don't need a license from AT&T, and AT&T didn't trademark C++. I owe him a large debt of gratitude, and so does the C++ community. Paul was one of the good guys. This enabled a thriving ecosystem for C++, and we all know what happened to Objective-C.