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MS Patents IM Feature Used Since At Least 1996

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the uspto's-perverse-incentives dept.

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."

2 of 524 comments (clear)

  1. Where's Powwow? by barfomar · · Score: 1, Troll

    Where do I buy the rights's to Powwow?

  2. patents have to be the answer by dnotj · · Score: 0, Troll
    1. IPO
    2. waste $$$
    3. make something unique
    4. cease to exist
    5. wait
    6. sue M$ for prior art patent violations

    I'm off to create something for micro$oft to steal from me.

    --
    No more Micro$oft bashing from me. Its like bashing at the special olympics.