This was a formal request for determination of intellectual property rights to the Windows ISM software. It uses a standard questionnaire form issued to researchers employed at the university. Not included here are the other items sent in with the form: an ISM PROGRAM DISK and two User Guides, one written by Ben Broome and the other written in halting hilarious English, produced by Mr. Ma and Mr. Gan, the two Chinese students who worked as the programmers. Warfield had insisted that they write a guide, as part of his contract with DSMC who was partial sponsor of the software project, but he also paid Ben Broome some extra money to write a SECONDARY guide. John Warfield wrote all of the disclosure information in this 13 page George Mason University form. It was submitted in 1994 as a step toward clarifying intellectual ownership so that the software could be legally marketed or distributed as soon as possible. The form contains several long paragraphs by Warfield describing the history of ISM and the nature of its usefulness. The disclosure form contains the names and signatures of the four men who produced the GMU version of ISM software for Windows, one of whom was Ben Broome, who directed the two Chinese students on the programming. Warfield submitted this intellectual property request in 1994.

After three long years of waiting, I believe that what happened is that Broome went in to talk to some sympathetic persons in the University offices to ask about the progress of the request, most likely at Warfield's urging. It was then, in 1997 that a response was forthcoming from Jennifer, in the GMU Office of Sponsored Programs, in the form of a memo of understanding*. The university "elected not to retain title" to the invention and indicated that transfer of intellectual ownership could go to Ben Broome as "the inventor." Jennifer's memorandum seemed to make Broome the effective owner of the software IP, but I am not even sure about that. (It is in filename: Memorandum to Ben Broome re Interpretive Structural Modeling Software) It was generally agreed by Warfield, Ben and the Chinese students that 1997 was far too late to capture any market that might have existed for this software. By 1997, several ISM software versions had been written and put into use by persons outside the university. Besides, the version developed by Broome and the students, (all three paid by Warfield's IASIS OFFICE BUDGET,WORKING OUT OF THE IASIS OFFIECE Warfield's office) was still full of bugs and there was no money to pay anyone to continue working on it after the two Chinese student programmers left and Broome moved to Arizona. Although the software worked, it was never very good software and Broome never did finish writing the only usable User's Guide. Warfield only had a few thousand dollars in his office budget to write software, he once said "If I had a million dollars I could get some software companies to write better software for the ISM, but I don't have a million dollars." But in any case it was assumed that IASIS was now free to "market" the software. Broome might have sold copies after he went to Arizona, but for how much and to whom I do not know. Warfield sold one or two packages of ISM software, to somebody or other, I forget who. Warfield priced the software at a few hundred in one instance and a couple of thousand dollars in another instance, but I forget exact amounts. He split the sale proceeds between Dangsheng Ma, Qingchuan Gan, Ben Broome and himself. After Warfield retired in the year 2000 the software was put on his web page for sale but as far as I can recall no sales occurred. Since about 2003 Warfield has offered this Windows version and also the old DOS VERSIONS as a free downloads from his web page. There are occasional students who write and ask for it from foreign countries. We always send a copy to whoever wants it. R.w. circa 2007