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Mark Zuckerberg, Inventor
theodp writes "Move over, Thomas Edison. Here comes Mark Zuckerberg, inventor extraordinaire. Zuck's still waiting for that elusive first patent to be issued, but take a gander at the Facebook founder's patent application for Dynamically Generating a Privacy Summary to get an idea of what's in the works. After you check boxes on a form to indicate that 'Everyone from San Francisco, CA, Social Network Provider, and Harvard' can see your profile, Zuckerberg's 'invention' will miraculously display: 'People from San Francisco, CA, Social Network Provider, and Harvard can see your profile.' How dare Rolling Stone question his inventiveness!"
No, you aren't allowed to patent something that is either prior art (someone else did it first) or obvious to someone skilled in the trade.
This would fall in the latter category. It's obvious that anyone who develops Web sites that you can do dynamic pages, so that means you can do dynamic legal agreements.
Duh.
My blog
My man page for getfacl says may 2000, which means that its been out long before that. Sorry mark, at least 8 years too late, but more like 38 (hell thats older than you)!
I remember in grade school being taught how great Edison was. What a joke. It's interesting how they don't teach about real inventors such as Tesla.
Although there is a rumor going around about a settlement, apparently, at least something is still on-going....
The last entry in June 4, indicates a hearing and exihibits were being submitted so there's a probably a settlement conference on this, but maybe it hit some sort of last minute snag...
I believe that patent was once held by Honeywell (please correct me if I'm wrong), so, fortunately, that's one area Mark wouldn't be able to get his hands on. Plus the prior art would be ridiculous.