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.

Comments

They can have this one.

[teamhasnoi]

kiss.my.org

Re:They can have this one.

[nfras]

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

Burn!

[JustinXB]

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!

http://yro.slashdot.org/

[donnacha]

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

So ...

[boarder8925]

"All your subdomain are belong to us."

Re:Isn't that how DNS WORKS?

[LittleBigLui]

Oh my GOD! The patented DNS!

You Bastards!

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

Re:Over and Over and Over

[Zerth]

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.

Re:Examples from the USPTO's Site:

[dasmegabyte]

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.

Something else interesting...

[glitch]

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

I think their 404 page is broken =]

Re:Tort reform! (yeah I'm overreacting)

[Anonymous Coward]

IP Voltron! Assemble!

EV1?

[xcfmx]

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

Re:Over and Over and Over

[pete6677]

Sorry, there is prior art.

Re:Over and Over and Over

[inertia187]

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.

Your Invoice is due!!! Pay now!!!!!

[aauu]

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.