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Private company

Applied Data Research

Logo: Orrins, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons3

Large US-based software vendor

Applied Data Research, Inc. (ADR), was a large software vendor from the 1960s until the mid-1980s. ADR is often described as "the first independent software vendor". Founded in 1959 by seven engineers who had previously worked at Sperry Rand, ADR was originally a contract development company.2 It is headquartered in Princeton.1 It ceased to exist in 1986.1 Wikipedia text CC BY-SA 4.0

Last updated Oct 21, 2026.

Overview

1959Founded1
  • Industryinformation technology1
  • HeadquartersPrinceton1

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759 State Road in Princeton
Photo: Jonathan Schilling, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons5

Applied Data Research, Inc. (ADR), was a large software vendor from the 1960s until the mid-1980s. ADR is often described as "the first independent software vendor".2

Products and brands

  • design by contract

Listed on Wikidata.1

ADR received the first patent issued for a computer program, a sorting system, on April 23, 1968. The program was developed by Martin Goetz. In this effort, ADR enlisted support of the Association of Data Processing Service Organizations (ADAPSO), which argued that being able to patent software innovations was vital to smaller companies being able to succeed in the market against larger companies, who would otherwise be able to imitate a product and bundle it as a free addition to their other offerings.

From Wikipedia’s article on Applied Data Research, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4

Acquisitions

  1. 1967Acquired Massachusetts Computer Associates1

Timeline

  1. 1986Dissolved Dissolved1
  2. 1959Founded Founded1

Sources

The numbers on this page point here. Each one links to the record it came from.

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