Visto Founder Blogs about Microsoft Lawsuit

neelm writes "Reported a few days ago, Visto is suing Microsoft over patent infringements. David Cowen, a founder of Visto (and Verisign) has made a recent blog post about the patent involved. He clears up what exactly the patents involved are, but what may be a more interesting read is the patent itself - issued in March of 2004. It might be nice to see Microsoft defending itself from patent litigation I admit, but I'm not sure I want to give validity to this patent."

Comments

Patent?

[Bananatree3]

" System and method for globally and securely accessing unified information in a computer network"

At first I thought maybe they were going to sue them for stealing one of the variations on the name "Vista".

Re:Patent?

[IgLou]

Man I read that patent and I couldn't help but wonder who you couldn't sue with that? Talk about vague! That's it, I'm patenting the algorithm to add 1 + 1 electronically. Cha-ching!

Re:Patent?

[IgLou]

Hmm, I'll have to try something different then... Any takers?
I'll partner with whoever comes up the most lucrative idea. How hard can it be to abuse this? Seems like everyone else is doing it and looks like so much fun!

I've got it! I'll patent the a method to take data and display it to a luser. Brilliant! I'm back in cha-ching land!

Re:How did that get a "patent"?

[Anonymous Coward]

USPTO policy: You file it, we grant it. Easy, ain't it?

No content in this 'article'

[tpgp]

Don't bother reading this blog posting - for your amusement I will present the entertaining parts:

our only assets were 17 computers and a very well used futon.

*shivers* Glad I didn't work there....

Oh - and this photo is mildly amusing too...

Re:In all honesty.

[lbrandy]

When the dust has settled I'm sure Europe, Canada and the rest of the free world will give asylum to the ones of you that decide to depart from the united states of previous freedom. I'm trying to figure out which side you are on and which side is responsible for the "previous freedom" comment... Could it be Microsoft, the defendant of a patent lawsuit.. somehow attacking our freedoms... or is it maybe Visto... the benefactor of some percieved flaw in the patent system whom is stamping out the precious liberty...

... or, the dreaded third option, who seeks to destory us all... the wretched karma-whore! Is this what happens when karma-whores can't figure out which is more likely to net them Karma? Anti-Microsoft or Anti-Patent.... Oh, I know.... Patriot Act!

Pseudocode, Lawyer-Style

[joe_n_bloe]

"Thereafter, the applet 359 in step 1325 acts as the I/O interface with the communications interface 340 of the global server 115. If the global server 115 in step 1330 determines that it is unauthorized to perform a remote terminal 105 user's request, then the global server 115 in step 1345 determines whether the method 1050b ends, e.g., whether the user has quit. If so, then method 1050b ends. Otherwise, method 1050b returns to step 1325 to obtain another request. If the global server 115 in step 1330 determines that it is authorized to perform the remote terminal 105 user's request, then the global server 115 in step 1340 acts as the proxy for the remote terminal 105 to the service 615. As proxy, the global server 115 forwards the service request to the selected service 615 and forwards responses to the requesting applet 359 currently executing on the remote terminal 105. Method 1050b then jumps to step 1345."

Re:Time to drag out this old chestnut

[burnin1965]

Reading arguments on Slashdot is like watching the Special Olympics - it's retards all the way down.


Reading slashdot comments and being upset that there are arguments is like watching the special olympics and expecting not to find retards. It's the entire point.

Replying to comments on slashdot concerning how retarded the arguements are is something only a retard would ... oh wait

Followup...

[hackwrench]

Man, oh Man, It now appears every time I sneakernetted I violated this patent...where do I pay up? Still scouring for other ways I'm in violation of this patent...

Hmm... seems that the part where I saved files from the internet onto a PC-FAT12 formatted diskette from the library's Macintoshes violates the device-independent capabilities of their patents.

I'm hosed... Yeah, right!

Re:Blog Excerpt

[corbettw]

Today I woke up and started preparing for work as usual. Brushed my teeth, shaved, took a shower.

And we're supposed to believe this guy is a computer engineer?? Piffle, any real geek would be too busy drawing up new patent applications to bother with something as trivial as hygene.