Microsoft Patents Your Local Weather Report

theodp writes "After a seven year wait, Microsoft was granted a patent Tuesday for the Customization of network documents by accessing customization information on a server computer using unique user identifiers, patent lawyer-speak for using preferences stored on a server for such purposes as "displaying stock quotes for the companies in which the user is interested, and displaying the user's local weather report.""

Comments

The Borg are on the rampage! :-)

[ChaoticChaos]

We are the Borg. Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated either through buyouts, via the fact we have more money than God, or through patents!

Bill "Laquotos" Gates
"It's no longer about software, it's about kicking around your candy ass"

Re:Hype

[Qzukk]

Secondly, wildly broad claims normally start, and increasingly narrow claims are made as one works down the ordered list. Therefore, the first thing you claim is going to be ridiculously broad.

And therein lies the problem. Because the patent office granted this patent, that first wild claim is enforceable. Patent law says that every claim individually is protected (we went through this at work when we were sued, trying to find a way out). And knowing microsoft, and the huge amount of money they have for these things, they will attempt to enforce it if they can kill a competitor by doing so.

Re:Did you even read the patent?

[winkydink]

Bunch of moronic zealots. "MS did something it has to be evil!"

You said it, but then again, this is /. What did you expect? If there was a reference on the Main Page that said. "Bill Gates takes a dump. It's brown.", within an hour, there'd be 300+ replies slamming Gates, feces, Microsoft and how all 3 are really the same thing.

But, don't worry about people reading this or your original. We'll both be mod'ed down into oblivion very soon for not joining in the bashing frenzy. This is, after all, /.