Re: Comments requested

From: Walt Howard (howard@duh.chpc.utah.edu)
Date: 03/13/02 

From: howard@duh.chpc.utah.edu (Walt Howard)
Date: 13 Mar 2002 22:16:36 GMT

In article <mLOj8.193$oa.161763@news20>,
David Montville - RTL <dwm1@interaccess.com> wrote:
>Any comments on the following would be appreciated:
>http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?TERM1=6%2C356%2C937&Sect1=PTO1&Sec
>t2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=0&f=S&l=50
>
>Thanks,
>
>info@rivertechltd.com
>
The referenced patent (on which the OP's name appears as one inventor)
makes a lot of claims about "Interoperable full-featured web-based and
client-side e-mail system". IANAL, but I think most of the claims should
have been disallowed on the basis of prior art. Bluntly, it appears that
you have been granted a patent for assembling a bunch of other people's
ideas. Of course, an email system that doesn't conform to Internet
standards is going to be hard to sell, even if it does some things better
than standards-conforming systems.

IMHO, this patent clearly demonstrates two (unoriginal) ideas:
1. Software patents are evil, just as Richard Stallman has been claiming.
2. The US P&TO is incapable of assessing the claims in software patent
    applications. They just don't know enough to recognize new claims on
    existing ideas.

Lest there be any doubt, I do NOT speak for my employer. 

-- 
Walt Howard
InterNet: whoward@ieee.org
BellNet: +1 801 585 0003

Relevant Pages

  • EU software patents: please express gratitude to Poland (fwd)
    ... intervention in the Council of the European Union against software patents ... proposal that would legalize software patents in the EU. ... Patent Office and national patent offices) have been granting software ... The EU Council could not have turned that proposal into an effective law ...
    (comp.os.linux.announce)
  • Re: CONFIG_VFAT_FS_DUALNAMES regressions
    ... a pool of victims to be sued, and Linux loses credibility every time ... patent will impact Microsoft revenues; ... if we work around a patent without losing function we ... implicitely saying "yes" software patents as such. ...
    (Linux-Kernel)
  • Re: Patent victory!
    ... >The Patent system is actually to *encourage* publication of ideas. ... It gives the inventor a time-limited monopoly, as a reward for the ... Now, if software patents were granted for a year or two at most, then we ...
    (borland.public.delphi.non-technical)
  • Re: The Vaults of Innovation
    ... >> more like the USPTO is no longer bothering to consider the ... issue the patent and let the grantee and any ... > inventions have always been patentable, any relevant prior art will almost ... For software patents, the lack of patent histories does not affect ...
    (comp.arch.embedded)
  • Re: Newsflash: Microsoft Word--Banned in the USA
    ... I am not totally against software patents. ... It's like I could patent ... his denials of being a patent troll, it's obvious that he's a patent ... New audio book: As Long as You Wish by John O'Keefe ...
    (rec.arts.sf.written)