URLs Patented, Domain Registrars Sued

theodp writes "A newly formed company is suing Network Solutions and Register.com for infringing on its e-mail and domain naming patent, which covers assigning each member of a group a URL of the form 'name.subdomain.domain' and an e-mail address of the form 'name@subdomain.domain.'"

Comments

I Smell MS

[RedHat_Linux_Man]

This company wouldn't have any affiliation with Microsoft would it???

Screw this shit

[t_allardyce]

Oh please this is getting fucking stupid. Fair enough if you patent something very complex and impressive thats taken years of work, but really, most patents are just a joke - literally! if i was a patent clark i would actually just tell some of these people to fuck off and come back when they had something real, this patent is literally about some bloody dots, it pisses me off, its not even as though they even invented email, domain names or url formatting!! copyright law is a big joke.

Re:They're too late!

[Tablizer]

and I have to pay Goatse Guy $10 everytime I take a big, painful shit.

Re:Slightly funnier take

[psxndc]

Obvious things are patented every day. If a rule isn't enforced, it doesn't exist.

You obviously don't prosecute patents for a living. I see 103 rejections all the time and for non-obvious material (35 USC 103 is the statute that bars the patenting of obvious subject matter). Contrary to what everyone on /. thinks, you don't just whip out a patent app, give the PTO a check, and poof, you have a patent. Most patents take years, and several Office actions, to get through if they do at all. You only think the rule does not exist because a patent or three a year comes up that is "bad." No one says "look at the hundreds of useful, new, and non-obvious patents that are issued" because it's easier to tear apart the one or two that are broken.

psxndc