Larry Lambe passed on the following url to me for comment and I thought it would be of interest to others on the category theory list, with more expertise than I. I have not had time to study it, but on the face of it, it seems like patenting mathematics, and to be deplored intensely. Am I wrong? http://www.freepatentsonline.com/6964037.html Title: Method and apparatus for determining colimits of hereditary diagrams Document Type and Number: United States Patent 6964037 A computer-implemented method and system for determining colimits of hereditary diagrams. A user specifies a diagram of diagram and specifies performance of a colimit operation. Once the colimit is performed, the name of the colimit is added to the hereditary diagram. The described embodiment supports diagrams of diagrams, also called hierarchical diagrams. Ronnie http://www.freepatentsonline.com/6964037.html