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MailBlocks sues Earthlink over Anti-Spam Tech

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the eggs-bacon-sausage-and dept.

goombah99 writes "Mailblocks is suing Earthlink , claiming patents on Challenge-Response as a means of blocking spam. Slashdot recently discussed Earthlink's plans to implement a challenge-response email system. The next day mailblocks filed suit to defend their turf in the $118 million dollar anti-spam solutions market. MSNBC has a complete discussion."

4 of 336 comments (clear)

  1. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 5, Informative

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  2. It isn't just earthlink they are suing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative
    Mailblocks has previous filed suits against Mail Frontier -- makers of the Matador plugin for outlook and outlook express, Digiportal -- makers of ChoiceMail, and Spam Arrest who offers end user and enterprise services that directly compete with Mailblocks.

    Recent articles haven't mentions Digiportal or Mail Frontier, so it is possible that they have come to an agreement with Mailblocks.

    Full article (dated 4/05/03) from the San Jose Mercury News.

  3. Re:I did that by otmar · · Score: 5, Informative
    Checking my mail archive shows that have such a procmail rule since at least early '96.

    In fact, I posted it to Usenet later in '96. I'm pretty sure that you can find lots of similar prior art in the google usenet archive.

    /ol

  4. I have possible prior art from 1993/1994 by Dr.+Zowie · · Score: 5, Informative
    In 1993/1994 I was a graduate student at Stanford University and designed a simple challenge/response spam filtering system that works substantially the same as the one being advertised. Unknown incoming addresses were entered into simple ASCII database, and the associated mails were stashed in individual files in a particular directory. Unique challenge letters were to be sent out, and the mail was to be delivered or canned depending on the response (or lack thereof) from the challenge.

    I never finished implementing the system (I wrote my dissertation instead) but still have a midsized collection of emails about it.

    Challenge/response has got to be "obvious to one versed in the art" -- I can think of at least three other people at Stanford who had the same idea at about the same time.