Some experts say the method has been around for decades.
Some legal experts are not so dismissive, and Dickens, a retiring, bespectacled resident of Irvine, Calif., has quietly become a major nuisance for the nation's biggest corporations just as they brace for New Year's Day. Instead of focusing solely on final computer preparations, many Year 2000 managers are combing through software at the behest of company lawyers to see whether windowing was used. Cray retorts that Dickens just got the patent last spring and his initial overtures went nowhere. Several firms say they have been Y2K-ready for months and the patent claim is not a distraction. Still, to skirt further hassle during a crucial period, some companies will likely settle before Jan. 1, consultants say.