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programmer testified that he “could immediately know whether
something could be made to work or whether it just wouldn’t
work.”
Applied Systems’ employees performed the following tasks
relating to FIM: Establishing the capability to display business
forms, enter data into their blank fields, integrate the data
with a data base, and print standard forms. All these tasks were
feasible before 1990. Similarly, employees working on First Rate
converted State regulations and carrier formulas into programs.
This task is part of the normal skilled practice of software
development and does not advance or refine any principles of
computer science. Petitioners’ computer expert testified,
relating to the expansion of the rating module: “It’s hard for
me to think about writing each of those programs as constituting
research.” Applied Systems’ vice president in charge of First
Rate testified: “Really from 1990 to ‘92 there were minor
enhancements, modifications to make things easier. There weren’t
a lot of major changes.”
In essence, these tasks did not go beyond the current state
of knowledge in the computer science field and did not involve a
process of experimentation.
B. Other Projects
Petitioners contend that work on data conversion,
Independence, WinTAM, and Diamond qualifies for the research
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