Support Vector Machine algorithm threatened by patent enforcement (svmpatent.blogspot.com)

I thought mathematics couldn't be patented?

Anyway, I think Vapnik owns a patent for SVM. http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/5950146/fulltext.html

Wow, I'm torn between laughter and sadness. Laughter because svm's are used everywhere, seriously google scholar returns 1.5 million papers mentioning support vector machines. Good luck suing everyone of those. And sadness, although unlikely, this could have a huge chilling effect on Machine Learning, Computer Vision, NLP, etc.