MS Patents IM Feature Used Since At Least 1996

splorp! writes "Once again, a company is patenting a feature that another company implemented years before. C|Net's News.com reports that patent no. 6,631,412 grants Microsoft the rights to 'an instant messaging feature that notifies users when the person they are communicating with is typing a message.' Excuse me? Does anyone remember Powwow (now defunct)? I remember using that one back in '96 and it alerted the other people to whom you were chatting that you were typing. Or, alternately, it allowed you to SEE the other people typing in real time. Yeah, Powwow is gone, now, but that doesn't mean those features never existed."

Comments

Unix talk

[Kingpin]

How about unix talk? I haven't used it since about 96, but I seem to remember that either the text got sent real-time (which could be considered a notification..) or there was a status change.

Also..

[Conspiracy_Of_Doves]

it allowed you to SEE the other people typing in real time

ICQ has done that for a while too

write? ytalk?

[krinje]

What about all the real-time unix talk variants? I used them back in '90, '91 and could actually see what the user was typing!

Gee

[jaymz666]

What about TALK? It showed what you were typing when typing it!

VMS Vax Talk

[frode]

I used Talk on a VMS Vax machine in '94 and it was
basicly an IM app. Heck the other user could see the letters as you typed them. So unless M$FT started the patent process before Talk was invented I'd say their SOL.

unix talk

[kakapo]

Doesn't unix talk do this -- can't you see the characters as the other person types them.

OK, it does -- just tried it between two accounts, and whaddaya know?

I first used talk in 1990 -- I think -- when phonecalls across the Pacific cost an arm and a leg, and any sort of real-time communication over the net seemed just enormously cool.

When Instant Messaging was suddenly the next big thing I had to smile -- talk and finger (back in the day when most sites didn't block finger requests) do much the same thing as an IM system with a central server. Right down to having an analog of the unix .plan "away message"

Re:It's the application date that matters

[jacoplane]

from the patent form:


Inventors: Glasser; Daniel S. (Seattle, WA); Liffick; Stephen M. (Seattle, WA)
Assignee: Microsoft Corporation (Redmond, WA)
Appl. No.: 327384
Filed: December 20, 2002

Talk

[joelwest]

Have we forgotten talk? Ytalk? Xtalk?

Jeezus!

Re:Don't forget

[Dirtside]

...AOL and Yahoo were not available for comment. but they were typing a responce...

But how could you know that??! MS owns the patent on typing notification!!

talk

[too_bad]

Does anyone use the good old 'talk' program anymore? I know it was around for a long long time. Definitely before 1990. It used to give real-time indication of the other person typing, heck it used to show what the other person was typing, which most IMs couldnt for years (sigh)

Re:Don't forget

[mkldev]

It's hard to beat UNIX talk, which became part of BSD in 4.2BSD, i.e. 1983. Microsoft was still doing MS-DOS back then....