IBM Patents Web Page Templates

jalefkowit writes: "More follies from the US Patent & Trademark Office ... now IBM has been awarded US Patent #6,304,886 for software that automatically "generates [a] customized Web site without the Web site creator writing any HTML or other programming code", based on "a plurality of pre-stored templates, comprising HTML formatting code, text, fields, and formulas" that are then customized through the process of asking the user a few questions. In other words, they've patented the ubiquitous wizards found in FrontPage and other newbie-oriented HTML editors. This was submitted to the USPTO on June 19, 1998 -- surely someone out there knows of prior art for this?"

Comments

Prior Art

[_azure23]

Sure, how about FrontPage97?

Re:Prior Art

[BrianH]

IBM could conceivably argue that FP97 is a programming utility and therefore exempt. A better example would be MS Publisher 97. I hammered out a few simple brochure sites with Publisher back then and it clearly violates this patent. I could pick a generic template from a list, input nothing more than my content or body text, and have the software output a web site (they were pretty awful sites, but that's beside the point).

There's your prior art, and it's from Microsoft no less.

Re:Prior Art

[Schwarzchild]

Actually a book describing FrontPage is cited as a reference of sorts in the patent itself:

Tyler, Denise. Laura Lemay's Web Workshop: Microsoft FrontPage 97. Sams, Macmillan Computer Publishing. ISBN 1575212234, published Jan. 17, 1997. .COPYRGT.1997. Introduction, Chapters 3 and 5.*

A modest suggestion

[AirLace]

Why doesn't the patent office implement a system whereby patent holders who are found to be abusing the system are denied the right to file any further patents for a specified period (say, 5 years) or lose the rights to other more valuable patents that they own? I think that'd make corporations like IBM which are looking to make a buck off trivial patents think twice about what they're doing. This software patent madness has to stop before it spreads to Europe.

Re:Sorry IBM

[Zeinfeld]

I have prior art going back to 1993.

I was in a patent meeting when we were discussing filling a bunch of patents so that we would have amunition to fire back should some company come and fire at usthe patents that they orginialy filed for the same reason.

The reason I don't like doing that sort of thing is that besides being essentially fraudulent the fact is that no company has prospered long on the basis of a patent portfolio alone. Polaroid and Xerox are two prime examples of the long term effect of management thinking they have a monopoly in their market.

Re:Prior Art: 1995

[sulli]

I have right here in front of me a copy of the very first FrontPage, by Vermeer Technologies, copyright 1995. From the package:

Visual tools make modifications as simple as dragging-and-dropping.
- Drag-and-drop hyperlink editing
...

Desktop publishing features create professional-looking results.
- Hide HTML code with WYSIWYG editor
- Create "hotspots" on images with clickable image editor
- Add interactive forms with just a few mouse clicks
...

WebBots (tm) eliminate programming tasks while Web Wizards guide you through the creation process.

Built in WebBots let you:
- Create bulletin boards for threaded discussion groups
- Save information from fields automatically
...
Web Wizards simplify the development of:
- External Web sites
- Internal Web sites for corporate information distribution
Select from over twenty page templates or create your own.

So is this prior art or what?