Symantec Patents Multiple File Area Virus Scanning

DigitumDei writes "Symantec announced on Wednesday that it has aquired a new patent (United States Patent - 6,851,057) titled "Data driven detection of viruses". Symantec has declined to comment on whether it will pursue litigation. Symantec's director of intellectual property Michael Schallop stated : 'We don't generally discuss how we will leverage this patent against competitors or others,'." From the article: "[The patent] could refer to any technology that allows antivirus researchers or antivirus products to use scripting to determine, dynamically, where in a file to scan and detect threats. It could also include the use of Javascript or other common scripting languages to direct antivirus scanning..."

Comments

Good for Symantec

[wheelbarrow]

Symantec deserves to profit from their hard won intellectual property. The investors and employees of Symantec have taken enormous financial risks by investing in this business. There was a high probability of failure when they started. Now the public has benefitted from having their anti-virus tools protecting their computers and the Symantec investors have been rewarded for investing in a long shot.

evil, again

[54v4g3]

Symantec, the Microsoft of anti-virus software? Really, I think someone should develop an open-source antivirus product so all the windows users would have an alternative to these products produced by idiotic companies.

Legal terrorism

[Quattro Vezina]

Should we call them Symanterrorists now?

What they're doing is a form of terrorism that's sadly not illegal. In fact, it's terrorism through the legal system. It's "legal terrorism" in two meanings at once.

Dammit, Bush, if you want to fight a war against terrorism, fight one against legal terrorism too. We could use one.