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You Might Be a Microsoft Patent Infringer

Posted by timothy on from the the-easy-way dept.

theodp writes "Do you use drop-down menus, alphanumerical input boxes, check boxes, radio buttons or sliders to allow client side-processing of data? Utilize SQL, HTML, ActiveX, Java, Perl, JavaScript or JScript to do so? Employ arrays, stacks, queues, linked lists, or decision trees to organize things? Well Bunky, you might be infringing on Microsoft's new patent for Dynamically adjusting data values and enforcing valid combinations of the data in response to remote user input, which the USPTO granted Tuesday after 6+ years and two rejections."

10 of 102 comments (clear)

  1. In other news... by jack's+wasted+liver · · Score: 4, Funny

    "Microsoft Patents 1, 0"

  2. As if prior art...... by Nagatzhul · · Score: 4, Funny

    will be hard to prove on this one. Good grief. What is next, a patent on oxygen?

    --
    "All I want is a warm bed and a kind word and unlimited power." - Ashleigh Brilliant
  3. wow by GeoffKerr · · Score: 4, Funny

    That's the biggest load of crap I've ever heard. They might as well try patenting the advanced, new technology called "thought"... that way they don't have to file a patent for anything new in the future when they want to take control over any new ideas. Next thing we know, they will be trying to take credit for writing Romeo and Juliet and say that it's been embedded in the Windows source since before Shakespeare was born.

  4. Topic overrated, flamebait by Vaevictis666 · · Score: 5, Insightful
    from the patent application:

    What is claimed is:
    1. A method for dynamically displaying pricing data on a client display device...

    Note that that's a 1, meaning that's the patent request at its broadest. Once you get past the abstract, according to claim 1 there is required to be client-server communication, a price list, and rules for combining them.

    This patent would likely apply to a typical linux distro installation package manager (handling dependencies etc) that was (a) run online, (b) charged prices, and (c) did dependency checking on the form itself before submission.

    Hell, I doubt that even Linspire's Click'n'Run violates it...

  5. Because not everyone can afford to go to court? by brunes69 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If MS decided to send me, or anyone of millions of small companies, a letter saying "pay us 10,000 in royalties or we will sue you for 10 million in damages", guess what? I can't afford the patent attorney for the 8+ months of litigation, and I sure as hell can't afford the 10 million.

    The sad thing is that I should even need a patent attorney in this case - it should be so cut and deied that you could represent yourself! But alas, that is rarely so.

  6. Slash FUD by ahknight · · Score: 4, Insightful
    That's just a stupid, stupid interpretation of the patent. After reading the patent you will notice that it's about using client-side scripting to enable or disable conflicting form component values based on the current values of other components all specifically in the context of "pricing information" retrieved from the server. After reading the full description it's basically something they thought of when designing Carpoint (now http://autos.msn.com/) so that after each selection (year, model, etc.) you didn't hit the server for the values for the next item. Very popular these days, but not so much in 1998 when this was filed.


    One such system is a server database with a used car price guide for access by a remote user. First, the remote user makes an initial request to access results, such as pricing information for a particular car. After the remote user makes the initial request, the server collects sub-items, such as options relating to the particular car, and transmits the options to the remote user. The remote user is then required to select options for building an option configuration. If the option selections are invalid or conflict, the server notifies the user that the selections are invalid and then retransmits the options to the user. This validation step is repeated until the remote user submits valid option selections and an option configuration without conflicts. When the selection is valid, the server collects pricing information based on the option selections and overall configuration. The pricing information built from the selected options is then transmitted to the remote user.

    ...

    Specifically, first, a user requests information from a remote computer and then results of the requested information are collected at a host computer. Second, the results, sub-items and rules of enforcement of the sub-items relating to the request are transmitted from the host to the remote computer in a format that is preferably encoded and transparent to the remote user. Third, the results are remotely processed in response to user interaction of the results and sub-item selection and configuration. The processed results are dynamically adjusted and displayed as the user interacts with the results and the sub-items. Sub-item conflicts are prevented by enforcement of the transmitted rules of sub-item combinations and predefined interactive options. Graphical user interface control devices are used to allow user interaction and adjustment of the results. For example, alphanumerical boxes, drop-down menus, check boxes, radio buttons or the like can be used. The system and method of the present invention preferably utilizes client side-processing of the results instead of server-side processing. This enables the user to quickly access and adjust information dynamically and in real time without server delays.



    Still a crappy thing to patent, I totally agree, but hardly every damned control widget in every damned language in the known fucking universe as the author hints at.

    FUD sucks, no matter who spews it.
  7. Bright side: Free mod points by isn't+my+name · · Score: 4, Funny

    Hey, maybe this means that MS can stop Slashdot from keeping track of how many mod-points I have.

    After all, Slashdot "[d]ynamically adjust[s] data values and enforc[es] valid combinations of the data in response to remote user input."

  8. Congrats to the USPTO by MarkGriz · · Score: 4, Funny

    which the USPTO granted Tuesday after 6+ years and two rejections

    They've successfully reduced Patent Examiner incompetence to 1 out of 3

    --
    Beauty is in the eye of the beerholder.
  9. Prior art for claim 1 by Eric+Smith · · Score: 4, Informative

    Digital Equipment Corporation (the remains of which are now part of HP) had an online customer ordering system in the early 1990s that did everything described in claim 1 of the patent. I'm pretty sure there were other systems in operation more than a year before the patent filing that did this as well.

  10. Good news by vijaya_chandra · · Score: 4, Funny


    Employ arrays, stacks, queues, linked lists, or decision trees to organize things?

    Finally some gain for not learning anything at school.
    Everyone loses I gain.