Multi-Channel Communication Patent Up For Sale

Posted by kdawson on Tuesday March 25, 2008 @12:31PM from the can-you-say-prior-art dept.

OTDR alerts us to the latest software patent stupidity in the news as patent number 6,418,462, "methods allowing clients to perform tasks through a sideband communication channel, in addition to the main communication channel between a client and server," snubs its nose at AJAX, ftp, and decades of prior art and goes on sale next month in San Fransisco. "Singled out are AJAX mashups including Google Maps and Gmail, and Microsoft 'Live'... Also in the frame are Amazon's S3 and EC2 and clusters from Microsoft, VMware, and Oracle. eBay's Skype, Napster, and Microsoft's Groove are also listed as potentially infringing on the patent in P2P."

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Re:haha by Anonymous Coward · 2008-03-25 13:04 · Score: 0, Troll

You're tilting at windmills, QuantumG. I tried for 2 years to explain the basics of the patent system to the people on slashdot (imagine that, learning something!), but all I got for my trouble was negative karma.

Best to just leave all these patent stories alone and let all the people here have their reassuring circle jerk - screaming "prior art!" without understanding what prior art is, and instantly discounting an idea as obvious without even looking at the method being proposed.