Workflow Version Management patent approval... interesting abstract

For the community to ponder :slight_smile:

This patent was recently approved.

and the project that the patent was originally based on: GitHub - salesforce/oss-request

Check out that abstract!

Techniques are disclosed relating to a system capable of processing instances of different versions of a workflow. The system may store workflow information indicating different versions of a workflow. The system may receive requests to create instances of the workflow. The requests may include a first request associated with a first, non-current version of the workflow and a second request associated with a second, different version of the workflow. The computer system may create a set of instances of the workflow, including a particular instance corresponding to the first request. The computer system may receive a request to migrate the particular instance to a particular version different from the non-current version associated with the first request. The computer system may migrate the particular instance to the particular version of the workflow, such that subsequently received instance data for the migrated particular instance is processed according to the particular version.

I am confused. Did they get a patent for how to boil water? What does it mean?

This is indeed and odd thing to read… i have no idea how they can get a patent for something so ubiquitous…

Would seem that based on the abstract, most BPMS applications in the BPMN space would be under the patent. jBPM from like v3 (~2008) would be in conflict with this patent (based on the abstract).