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Subdomains Part Of The Patent Frenzy

Colonel Angus writes "Web Hosting Industry is carrying a story about a company called Ideaflood that has been sending out letters to web hosting firms claiming that they own a patent on subdomains and are claiming a license needs to be purchased to continue to use them. This is reminding me of the hyperlink patent from a couple years back." Maybe Frank Weyer will ask them to wrestle.

32 of 356 comments (clear)

  1. They can have this one. by teamhasnoi · · Score: 5, Funny

    kiss.my.org

    1. Re:They can have this one. by nfras · · Score: 5, Funny

      Did you realise that you could register a similar domain in the Cook Islands and have kiss.my.co.ck?

      --
      You call me a pedant? I prefer the term "correct"
  2. Burn! by JustinXB · · Score: 5, Funny
    I just filed a patent for the process of patenting things.

    I stand to gain millions. Invest in me now or fear my wrath when I have a laser death canon on the mooon!

  3. Patent my ass by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Funny

    I am patenting my ASS. I will be sending a photo of my ass to IdeaFlood with a cease-and-desist demanding they stop acting like asses or I will have to sue them for infringing on my patent.

    1. Re:Patent my ass by hoggoth · · Score: 2, Funny

      > I am patenting my ASS.

      At this very instant I am reading this from the bathroom while infringing on your patent.

      Sue me.

      --
      - For the complete works of Shakespeare: cat /dev/random (may take some time)
  4. Re:Over and Over and Over by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Funny

    This reminds me of the time they let a guy patent the wheel in Australia.

  5. http://yro.slashdot.org/ by donnacha · · Score: 4, Funny


    "Gee, that's an awful nice "yro" you got there. Be an awful shame if anything were to happen to it."

  6. So ... by boarder8925 · · Score: 4, Funny

    "All your subdomain are belong to us."

  7. Re:Tort reform! (yeah I'm overreacting) by yintercept · · Score: 2, Funny

    I just hope the merger and acquisition department at SCO is keeping tabs on these valuable garbage intellectual property firms. Imagine if SCO (the owners of linux), IdeaFlood (who owns subdomains), that group that owns the patent to hyperlinks, and all the rest of the garbage IP claims got together...why, they could sue the world. Think of the value of the stock of that company!!!!

  8. Re:Patenting an RFC? by Guru2Newbie · · Score: 2, Funny
    And in other news, tomorrow, I'm patenting the misspelling of referrer in electronic comunication.

    And I'll patent your "comunication" misspellings.

  9. Re:Reminds me of SCO. by thefinite · · Score: 2, Funny
    Do you mean the copyright SCO thing with which the US PTO is not involved at all?

    Then, if it was just the common stupidity they shared here, yeah, I see the similarity.

    --
    Boom Shanka
  10. Re:Isn't that how DNS WORKS? by LittleBigLui · · Score: 5, Funny

    Oh my GOD! The patented DNS!

    You Bastards!

    I won't pay. No, no, no. Anyone got a complete /etc/hosts for me?

    --
    Free as in mason.
  11. Re:Patenting an RFC? by LMCBoy · · Score: 2, Funny

    why...that's brilliant! Finally I can realize my dream of never again seeing the word "loose" written when "lose" is intended! By patenting it, I can simply charge a fee equal to my annoyance at the sight of that extra little o. Say, 50 grand per incident.

    --
    Liberal (adj.): Free from bigotry; open to progress; tolerant of others.
  12. Here's my license by davmoo · · Score: 2, Funny

    I own a server, and it has subdomains on it. In fact, I think I'll go create a few dozen more subdomains. And this is my personal and public invitation for Ideaflood to suck my big fat wingy-wang.

    I've said it before (mostly about SCO) and I'll say it again...

    Those who can, innovate.
    Those who can't, litigate.

    --
    I want a new quote. One that won't spill. One that don't cost too much. Or come in a pill.
  13. Ideaflood doesn't own that patent... by rice_burners_suck · · Score: 1, Funny

    There is no way that Ideaflood owns the patent on Subdomains. Remember, Al Gore invented the Internet. He owns all the patents on these technologies, and I know for a fact, from extremely reliable sources, that he did not transfer ownership of these patents to Ideaflood. I have bulletproof evidence: Two people, who claim not to know each other, both told me the same thing one day.

  14. Re:Patenting an RFC? by Deraj+DeZine · · Score: 2, Funny

    You can't patent a reeferer. I'm holding some prior art sparking away in my hand as I type this.

    *Slow motion smoke cloud exhaled*

    --
    True story.
  15. That's right! by obeythefist · · Score: 2, Funny

    Back in my day, before these idealfoods people made subdomains, I had fun on all the websites on the internet. I used to go to gov, mil, com, edu and sometimes org.

    --
    I am government man, come from the government. The government has sent me. -- G.I.R.
  16. Re:Over and Over and Over by Zerth · · Score: 4, Funny

    Sure, actually there are several dozen people at the patent offices who are knowledgeable about most, if not all, of the subjects that are covered by these silly patents and each takes the time to read them when presented with them.

    They're the janitorial staff and they giggle like mad every time they empty the wastepaper baskets.

  17. is "www" technically a subdomain? by howhardcanitbetocrea · · Score: 2, Funny

    I hope so, will make the case that much more interesting.

    --

    President ISES
    (International Society for Elimination of Sigs)
  18. Re:Examples from the USPTO's Site: by dasmegabyte · · Score: 3, Funny

    Do YOU understand what this patent means?

    It's not a patent on "subdomains," it's a patent on automatically GENERATING subdomains. A pretty specific practice.

    I'm pretty sure that tess2 is not a user of uspto.gov whose patent site was automatically generated when she signed up. Ipso facto, they're NOT in violation of the patent.

    I should patent not reading the fucking article. I'd make a killing on slashdot.

    --
    Hey freaks: now you're ju
  19. Something else interesting... by glitch · · Score: 5, Funny

    Try going to http://www.ideaflood.com/youre_a_bunch_of_asswipes

    I think their 404 page is broken =]

  20. Re:Tort reform! (yeah I'm overreacting) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    IP Voltron! Assemble!

  21. EV1? by xcfmx · · Score: 5, Funny

    How long until EV1-Servers buys a license to protect its customers?

  22. Re:Patenting an RFC? by Tablizer · · Score: 2, Funny

    That's prior art of a domain being specified. This patent is about automatically creating a subdomain for each user.

    So if a human does it, it is not covered. But if a machine does it, it is covered?

    Workaround: Hire somebody in a 3rd world country for 20 cents an hour to create subdomains for each new user account. The joy of globalism. Next!

  23. Re:Over and Over and Over by pete6677 · · Score: 3, Funny
  24. Re:Over and Over and Over by inertia187 · · Score: 3, Funny
    I'll patent 9, and any number divisible by 9. As such, I'll also own the patent on transposition typos, for example:
    044
    023
    054
    074 < this is a typo, should be 047
    030
    ---
    225 - 198 = 027
    225 is the arrived total. 198 is the previous balance. We expected the new balance to be 0, but have 027. 027 is divisible by 9, so I just need to try transposing each number to see which one brings the balance to 0. If I find it, it's likely to be the error.

    This isn't perfect because two transpositions or other typos would screw up the logic. Please make checks out to Ian Nertia.
    --
    A programmer is a machine for converting coffee into code.
  25. Re:Over and Over and Over by Ethropod · · Score: 2, Funny

    Anyone know if there is a patent on "unwanted email advertisements" ? I could make a killing of off that!

  26. Your Invoice is due!!! Pay now!!!!! by aauu · · Score: 3, Funny

    Attn: Accounts Payable

    Your payment of $100,000 annual fee to use my patented (pending) method of remote modulation of colored phosphors or any other means of displaying colored pixels to convey information is DUE NOW. Failure to pay will result in all monitors only displaying grey scale when browsing your web site or displaying any banner ads or or other content linked to your site.

    You will need to remit to Xerox your fee for black and white, and to IBM your fee for green and black.

    --
    When I was young, I had to rub sticks together to compute.
  27. My Patent Application by garethwi · · Score: 2, Funny

    I'm patenting the use of the letter 't' in url's. I'll get paid at least once for ftp:// urls, and at least twice for http://.

    I won't collect on news://, but hey, I'm not greedy.

  28. Re:Over and Over and Over by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny
    The problem with the patent office is the same problem we have: They can't be experts in everything.


    WRONG! Most slashdot readers actually ARE experts at everything.

  29. Patent Baby Making by forgeeks · · Score: 1, Funny

    I'm going to patent the process of making babies. I of course came up with this concept when I was 16 so I'm sure I was the first as I owned the world that day. Just think about all the money I will make on an hourly basis!!!

    Of course if anyone has some prior "art" feel free to post it ;)

    --
    -- Powered By Linux
  30. I Patent... by Supergoad · · Score: 2, Funny

    I patent procreating. Now please send a SASE with $200(For your licsense, of course), to ...

    Maybe if I send Ev1Servers a threatning letter, they will buy a few....

    hmmm....