Slashdot Mirror
Patent Troll Targeting Users of Scanners; Wants $1000/Employee
New submitter earlzdotnet writes "A new patent troll is in town, this time targeting the users of technology, rather than the creators. They appear to hold a process patent for 'scanning a document and then emailing it.' They are targeting small businesses in a variety of locations and usually want somewhere between $900 to $1200 per employee for 'infringement' of their patent. As with most patent trolls, they go by a number of shell companies, but the original company name appears to be Project Paperless LLC. Joel Spolsky said in a tweet that 'This is organized crime, plain and simple...' I tend to agree with him. When will something be done about this legal mafia?"
How does this hold any legal water at all? Isn't the manufacturer of a product liable for patent infringements, not the end user?
(Right, Upper hand corner of this page for me.) /.
"Wondering what your patents might be worth in the current market?"
Wow! I can't resist selling my patents!
Ahem! Well, back to
'Those lousy trolls, I wish they would just go away.'
You're all stupid people to believe that this is the real 'legal mafia'. The government is the real mafia. Until you wake up and realize that more than 80% of your day goes to paying for the elite bastards to live high on the hog you won't ever find freedom.
The government is just the enforcer.
You want to talk to the Don, you'll be walking into a bank like Goldman Sachs or HSBC, not a government building.
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
Food Concepts Inc
2551 Parmenter St
Middleton, Wi
53562
I fucking double dare you.
(a) Except as otherwise provided in this title, whoever without authority makes, uses, offers to sell, or sells any patented invention, within the United States or imports into the United States any patented invention during the term of the patent therefor, infringes the patent.
Ooh, moderator points! Five more idjits go to Minus One Hell!
Delendae sunt RIAA, MPAA et Windoze
There are two types of people in the world; those who believe there are two types of people, and those who don't.
Has anyone patented the process of sueing people for violations of patents? If not someone better get on it quickly. Millions of dollars in settlements are being lost every minute now.
I often have trouble remembering which way is out of bed in the morning.
I don't e-mail people my scans, I upload them to Megaupload and send them the link.
Foolproof.
In the old days you would send a fake purchase order for some low amount to finance and demand to get paid. This is just another scam like that
I guess people need to be outraged about something
We need Leverage... But they need that show's run.
As soon as the other mafia is driven out of Congress and Senate!!
Sorry, I RTFA (bad form) and I missed the part where the government is extorting money from people for scanning and emailing documents. But thanks for your "F the gubberment!!!"" post which is always good for some cheap mod points. If that's what you're into.
Question 1: Who develops and maintains the patent system that not only allows, but seemingly encourages this sort of trolling behavior?
Question 2: Assuming a correct answer for question one, do they who maintain the patent system profit from this sort of trolling behavior?
I fail to see how anyone who answers those questions honestly can absolve the government of blame.
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
Let us be very helpful to this troll and send him names and addresses of all the congresscritters and judges who might have been in violation of the claimed patent. Some how get him to include the names of these figures whose power/IQ ratio approaches infinity. Then may be some reform might happen.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
Public records indicate that each of the partners in the law firm of Hill, Kertscher, & Wharton are either managers, members, or organizers in one or more of the shell companies which in turn appear to have a stake in Project Paperless, LLC.
sysadmins and parents of newborns get the same amount of sleep.
Organized crime is what $KNEE_JERK_HATETHINK_GROUP does these days. They are not here to $HATETHINK_GROUP_TASK. They are here to ensure that the $HATETHINK_CLASS get more $HATETHINK_CLASS. Any sort of thuggery by which that occurs is fine as far as any $SUBSET_OF_KNEE_JERK_HATETHINK_GROUP is concerned.
There, FTFY. And, as a bonus, fixed it for anyone else responding.
Does it also cover scanning, adding a signature in photoshop, and then e-mailing? Oh crap, wait! Gotta patent this fast!
So the best way to deal with trolls in the real world is the same as the online world: simply ignore them. If they want to sue you, then make them go through all the expense and trouble of making the case--most of the time they won't even bother. These are basically old timey protection rackets. They're trying to put the minimum amount of effort in to get the biggest return. They might try to make an example of a company or two, but it probably won't be you.
I read the internet for the articles.
Sorry, I RTFA (bad form) and I missed the part where the government is extorting money from people for scanning and emailing documents
You would, because it doesn't work that way. People extort money from other people using the government. The extortionists then pay the government for the privilege of being allowed to extort.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
thanks for giving them that idea. now I have to put my food in the front seat instead of the trunk.
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
When will something be done about this legal mafia?
Nothing will ever be done because every major company is playing the game.
Google, Apple, Microsoft, IBM . . . . . every big company with deep pockets has been hit by patent trolls. So why don't they all get together and use their considerable lobbying power to demand that congress change the law? Why? Because they don't really want the law changed. They want to be able to whack somebody with a patent lawsuit when it suits them.
Bogus patents are the new nuclear weapons. Everyone knows they are bad and destructive, they serve no useful purpose and should be eliminated. But nobody is willing to actually do that because some day they might need a weapon to use against a competitor. That's the new business model. Litigation instead of competition.
If you had read any political history, you'd recognize that it's much much worse today than it has been in recent history. You have to go 100 years back to find a government so cravenly beholden to the rich and powerful. Our government is more corrupt than any in living memory, that qualifies for a "these days".
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
Has the EFF said anything about this? Isn't this the kind of case they'd be interested in defending?
the reason is the end user won't fight it
the prior art is that the device in their patent had to exist before their patent. but the small business will pay up because its cheaper
that the companies that they are suing are scanning to email?
by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
Just 100 dollars? :D
I'll just scan the story and send out an email.
Wait...what?
I love the naive assumption that what we have is the worst possible outcome, and by choosing people at random we'll automatically arrive at a different result.
Well.. maybe. Or Maybe not. But Definitely not sort of.
Changing my assertion to a generic form that is clearly untrue does not actually refute my assertion. Try again.
Really, please do. I would love to believe that the government has my best interests at heart, but there is no such evidence available. Show me when the government has chosen to act for the best interests of the people over the best interests of the rich.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
The patents were filed beginning in 1997. Does anyone know if scanners from 1996 were able to scan in a document, launch an e-mail application, and attach said document to the e-mail? A quick Google Groups search did uncover a "photo scanning service" that promised to scan your photo and send it to you via e-mail. https://groups.google.com/group/nyc.singles/browse_thread/thread/6b8e902ec9996435/a1a550f3f5398a27?hl=en&q=scan+attach+to+e-mail#a1a550f3f5398a27
Also, for reference (and since people might not read the article), here are links to the patents in question:
http://www.google.com/patents/US6185590
http://www.google.com/patents/US6771381
http://www.google.com/patents/US7477410
http://www.google.com/patents/US7986426
My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
When will something be done about this legal mafia?
Nothing will ever be done because every major company is playing the game.
Google, Apple, Microsoft, IBM . . . . . every big company with deep pockets has been hit by patent trolls. So why don't they all get together and use their considerable lobbying power to demand that congress change the law? Why? Because they don't really want the law changed. They want to be able to whack somebody with a patent lawsuit when it suits them.
Bogus patents are the new nuclear weapons. Everyone knows they are bad and destructive, they serve no useful purpose and should be eliminated. But nobody is willing to actually do that because some day they might need a weapon to use against a competitor. That's the new business model. Litigation instead of competition.
Also, all these big companies have invested billions into their patent chests. If they urged patent reform, they could well wipe out the value of these chests, which could potentially wipe out the company, as these patents are a large part of their corporate worth. I'm sure it is true for others as well, but I remember it being mentioned on Slashdot a while ago that in the case of Apple they actually spend more per year on acquiring and protecting their patents than on R&D.
Or the naive assumption that we have any choice in who we vote for.
Just 100 dollars? :D
He's European. They use the '.' where we Americans would use a ','.
Understanding the scope of the problem is the first step on the path to true panic.
It seems that the perps in this scenario are using standard boilerplate forms to threaten lawsuits. Could some astute lawyer (IANAL) produce a standard boilerplate response form and offer it for a nominal fee? I think there is precedent for that in regards to a music copyright violation lawsuit-mill.
Or wrap it in a Taun-Taun carcass and strap it to the hood.
Not that I have a patent on this particular grocery retrieval process.
I drank what? -- Socrates
I would love to believe that the government has my best interests at heart, but there is no such evidence available. Show me when the government has chosen to act for the best interests of the people over the best interests of the rich.
You are perhaps thinking that the best interests of the individual are the same as the best interests of the people as a whole, or that your best interests are the same as someone else's? In one sentence you refer to "my best interests", and in the next you write "best interests of the people". Those two are not necessarily the same.
A1: Lawyers
A2: Yes.
Counter Question: Would you want to live in a society where the Government had total power to control Lawyers?
Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
So $100, to the thousandth. Got it. Wrong is wrong, I don't care where he is from.
No.
So $100. to the thousandth, Got it, Wrong is wrong. I don't care where he is from,
we don't have employees do that there 3rd party contractors
not very metric of them ;)
When the government cares more about its citizens than patent holders. AKA when hell freezes over. If you reduce the power of the patent you not only stop these relatively small players but also degrade the worth of everyone's patents. Which hurts the rich and powerful.
Troll is not a replacement for I disagree.
If you RTFA you would realize in this case this is different then every other patent story posted on Slashdot.
This story is about the legal equivalent of you being sued because you wipe your ass with your left hand. Sure someone could in fact hold a legitimate patent for the process of left handed ass wiping but there is no legal precedence for suing people because they use their left hand for wiping their asses. Spend a second and think about the stupidity of someone claiming $1000 in damage per person that uses their left hand for wiping their asses. Now spend another second thinking about how stupid it is for people in an office using the technology that exists in the office to scan and email a document and someone asking $1000 per person.
The only valid complaint this patent holder could have is to sue printer or scanner manufactures that offer scan to email features. Users of an idea do not violate patent law, period. You don't have to be a patent attorney to realize something is very wrong, this is not some example of a legitimate patent holder collecting their dues, this is outright extortion. You don't have to be an expert to have a comment about common sense.
You bitch about people flying off the handle before reading the story, but obviously you couldn't wait for the first patent story of the day to hit Slashdot before releasing your stupid rant without reading the article or applying any thought about it.
I might be a sucker, but I ain't no fool.
I haven't thought of anything clever to put here, but then again most of you haven't either.
A1: Lawyers
... who are employed by the government.
Counter Question: Would you want to live in a society where the Government had total power to control Lawyers?
From all I've seen, there's no evidence that I don't already reside in such a hellhole. Asking whether or not I want to live in such a dystopia is pretty much non sequitur, considering.
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
When people stop paying. The only reason these "businesses" can remain in "business" is because someone is paying.
I decided that everybody can use it against troll patenters.
FTA:
In the end, Hill and his fellow lawyers at his small Atlanta firm, Hill, Kertscher and Wharton, didn’t have a lot of fight in them. Two weeks after he filed the third-party complaint, Project Paperless dropped its lawsuit. No settlement, no deal—they just went away. (As a result, the scanner makers never actually came to court.)
That can't be where it ends. Where's the countersuit for legal fees? Compensation for the money required to do the prior-art search? There's protection (albeit not enough) from frivolous and vindictive (perhaps even defamatory, in this case) lawsuits.
6th Street Radio @ddombrowsky
There's a haggis joke in here somewhere
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
Of course they don't, corporations pass them.
the prior art is that the device in their patent had to exist before their patent.
Fax modem? In the process of scanning-to-e-mail, you ultimately have a scanner at one end, a communications network, and a device for receiving and displaying scanned images. A fax machine is a scanner, the phone system is a communications network, and a computer with a fax modem can receive and display faxes. I took the lowest patent number (US6185590) and the filing date on that is October 15, 1997. I remember owning a Mac with a fax modem in the fourth quarter of 1995.
Everyone knows they are bad and destructive, they serve no useful purpose and should be eliminated.
Um, nuclear weapons have arguably saved humanity from a third world war. Patents have accomplished what, again?
They're never going to get to the point of actually suing anyone in court. If someone puts up even a iota of a fight, they'll just dismiss the lawsuit and move on.
They're looking for easy targets who will just pay up without asking questions, which is why they're suing smaller companies. Someone like HP would eat them for lunch and get the patent invalidated.
And this is why, if they drop the lawsuit, they should have to pay all the legal expenses. Yes, including the lawyer bills of the defendant. And possibly moral damage on top of that. In short, what happens in any sane legal system, in which the initiator of a bogus lawsuit can suffer a significant net loss.
The American Rule is crap. Get rid of it.
There's nothing like $HOME
Certainly we do, it's just that very few people take seriously the candidates who haven't completely sold their soul in order to afford a massive media blitz. It's really a shame since according to recent political polls the largest single political group among US voters self-identifies as independent: 40% versus 30% democrat, 27% republican, and 3% for all other parties. Clearly there's substantial disillusionment with party politics, what we need is for someone to figure out how to woo voters while bypassing the massively expensive media conglomerates. A tall order, but both the candidates and voters are there.
--- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
Our company got one of these ridiculous letters about 2 months ago. I took great pleasure in immediately scanning it into an email to a colleague so we could laugh about it.
You should have replied to the letter with This. (no, it is not a goatse or a rickroll.)
This space unintentionally left blank.
What if we the people pool our resources, find patents with prior art, and submit requests for reexamination?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reexamination
Hit the worst offenders first, then from that imbalance let them start a patent war -- use their nuclear weapons -- among themselves until the whole system unravels. Might that be possible?
Exactly. I wish this guy hadn't posted AC because frankly, he's dead-on right about the OP. "It's the gubbermint's fault!" is an easy, cheap, and not helpful at all rallying cry. And notice that Mr. Question 1 and 2 also jumped on the "gimmie mod points" bandwagon by yelling basically the same thing in a slightly more civilized tone, and it worked. Doesn't change the fact that it's such a general accusation as to be completely worthless.
I've learned that they're worthless, so I don't read AC comments anymore.
Users of a Method, or a Process that is patented are, under US law, breaking the patent.
These patents are designed to protect things such as a process for making soap or candles, so that no one else can copy your exact technique.
These patents are then abused to protect a common process that occurs in the vast majority of businesses these days - like it or not, that's the law.
They even explain in the legal letter (if you read the linked article, and the legal letter it contains) that they're not going after Xerox or Canon who make the printers, as they're simply a tool used in the process. Similarly, they're not going after Microsoft or IBM, as the software used is simply another tool used in the process.
They are going after the people they have determined are infringing their patented process, which is nearly everyone - and they're focussing on small companies who don't have the resources to defend themselves as in the US, you don't have a loser-pays legal system.
I'd argue that one of the biggest infringers of these patents is the US Government itself, but I don't see them getting threatened any time soon...
Specialist Mac support for creative pros, Melbourne
Or the naive assumtion that once in office one will act differently than the other. After all, you're the product that they're selling out to their real benefactors.
"Tongue tied and twisted, just an Earth bound misfit
Would you want to live in a society where the Government had total power to control Lawyers?
Isn't the whole point of having a government that it's to protect you from predators like this because nothing else can? If not, then what is it for?
"Tongue tied and twisted, just an Earth bound misfit
Sorry, I RTFA (bad form) and I missed the part where the government is extorting money from people for scanning and emailing documents
You would, because it doesn't work that way. People extort money from other people using the government. The extortionists then pay the government for the privilege of being allowed to extort.
That's not how it was when it started, but that does appear to be the way that succeeding generations have allowed it to become.
"Tongue tied and twisted, just an Earth bound misfit
Don't be silly. The government isn't on your side.
Your Lawyer is supposed to be, but then if you think the Government should control all lawyers, what do you have left?
Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
Their earliest patent filing from the document at the embedded link is 1997, but Visioneer came out w/ the PaperMax in 1994 and it was advertised to do this. They defaulted to a proprietary format, but could also be output to a PDF and attached to an email. I got my 1st Visioneer about 1996 or so.
As Xerox bought out Visioneer a few years ago, I assume they got any patents and licensing.
I wonder if this is why the trolls are going after the users instead of the manufactures. Minolta, HP, and the others selling equipment to do this are probably operating under Xerox licenses and there's nothing to go after there.
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/culture/articles/941128/archive_013727_3.htm
When has any hovernment NOT looking out for the interests of the [rich, elite class, etc.] over the common person? Haven't read much political history have you?
You epitomize what I despise most reading about. Ignorant, uneducated boors pontificating their "shallow as a pane of glass" worldview as if they're established fact that everyone should know and agree with. Of course you can't spell, proofread, or offer a shred of proof to support your opinion.
I'm a libertarian, so I generally don't cheer government as the magic pixie dust that holds civilization together, but that's a lot better than being an ignorant fool like yourself.
Go read an encyclopedia (at your level, wikipedia will do). See Athens, Greece. Yeah, they had slaves. Everybody did then. Compare with Sparta. In many people's eyes, it was ugly. Ask the Persian god Xerxes. Switzerland, where every healthy man is mandated to be part of the militia, keeping his weapon in order along with regular training. Israel is also pretty obvious. 1776 USA.
Government doesn't have to be a malevolent force preying on its own citizens and others. It can be the fulcrum that leverages cooperation among the citizenry. Instead, apathy allows it to become the former.
I'm ashamed to share a planet with people who are as lazy minded as you.
"Tongue tied and twisted, just an Earth bound misfit
Easiest way to get rid of a patent troll (AKA the pushing their luck legal mafia).
#1. Locate the bridge (house, office, courthouse, hobbit hole) that the troll is hiding under(in) while attempting to collect his BS tolls.
#2. Gather like minded folks from the village (internet).
#3. Lead the raid to defeat with the NAMED troll knowing full well that the loot-drops are crap however the infamy of the raid will be remembered forever.
#4. Remember after defeating NAMED troll to take screenshots and to burn the pieces... they regenerate and multiply!
#5. Hope that the next hapless troll thinking about this course of action to make money will think about chasing tow trucks and ambulances.
Isn't the whole point of having a government that it's to protect you from predators like this because nothing else can? If not, then what is it for?
The government isn't on your side. Your Lawyer is supposed to be ...
Drank the Koolaid, have you?
... but then if you think the Government should control all lawyers, what do you have left?
Jaded much? Ever heard of The Constitution? The thing that tells your government what it's not allowed to fiddle with? Yours appears to be broken/insufficient. Have a nice day. :-P
"Tongue tied and twisted, just an Earth bound misfit
It's even worse than that; those corporations you mentioned are buying up patent portfolios IN CONJUNCTION WITH patent mega-trolls like Intellectual Ventures. They are the mafia bosses of this whole syndicate, and they don't want anyone else on their turf.
Thank you. That's the precedent I was thinking of. From TFA, it looks like BlueWave said something like that, probably put in more polite terms. Anyway, the troll did as requested :-)
Why is this so hard? If they cover scanning and emailing documents then surely the patents are obviously invalid due to prior art:
Could you do this before the first patent was filed (Oct 15, 1997)? Yes of course you bloody could, relatively affordable scanners have existed since the early 90s and anyone on a network would have used some kind of networked method to copy their scanned images to other computers.
Just 100 dollars? :D
He's European. They use the '.' where we Americans would use a ','.
It actually varies across Europe (France uses a space IIRC), but it is true that is one of those used.
No colour or religion ever stopped the bullet from a gun
'Who will rid me of these meddlesome trolls?'
Most businesses have now implemented stupid email "retention" policies to avoid law suits that require all email to be deleted after an insanely short time (my company has gone from 6 months to 1 month).
If only the kept that old email, and could show just ONE scanned document being emailed prior to the patent, they'd have prior art.
This is pure layman's WTFishness coming here, no legal experience whatsoever, but I can't quite understand how someone could feel they have a case here. How can one patent the actual "act" of doing something? At my place of business right now, we have a Xerox Workcentre 7775. We paid money for the purchase, the service contract with a local copier company for initial training, and now maintenance & supplies. We have many staff members entered into the simple one-touch menu, where it take their document, scans it, and e-mails a PDF attachment.
Are these people claiming they own a patent on us using a product we own, that was designed with this specific feature?
One possible solution to this problem might be a class action suit against the patent troll on behalf of all users of scanners who send scanned images as email attachments. The troll must be causing them some quantifiable loss through his negligent abuse of the patent system. Even if it's only $1,000 / class member, the damages could be $1 million per thousand class members. That ought to motivate some enterprising attorney.
One of my clients received one of these letters. It's a pretty laughable attempt at extortion. Because:
1. You can't tell if the extortionist is related in any way to the patent holder.
2. They tell you to do your own investigation, provide some pointers, and provide bank routing money for your EFT.
3. They haven't done their jurisdiction homework (RightHaven got hammered for this).
and these are just some of the procedural problems. The prior art issues don't even come into play. I don't think their letter even supports suing for a declaratory judgment against anyone. If they sent me one of these then I'd just throw it away without giving it further consideration. On the other hand, as a patent lawyer and litigator I can afford a far riskier strategy than most.
I think the extortionists waited until the patent reexamination/review process got significantly more extensive before they started their campaign. The America Invents Act raised the fee for ex-parte reexamination to $17,750 and for inter-partes review to $27,200.
I am a lawyer, but not yours. Anything I tell you might be a total lie intended to benefit my clients at your expense.
The American Rule is crap. Get rid of it.
The American Rule was created by (and is enforced by) legal professionals, who -- as a class in society -- are in a position of ethical conflict of interest with respect to the policies that govern the pay that legal professionals can receive.
It should not be surprising that -- in practice, whatever the theory behind the Rule may be -- this creates many problems.
This is part of a much bigger problem. Legal professionals -- as a class in society -- are in a position of ethical conflict of interest with respect to the nature, scope, and form of the legal system. It is not an accident that the USA is known as the "Land of the Lawsuit", but the ethics-related problems are not only limited to abuse of Tort Law. Rather, the problems, like a cancer that has metastasized, have spread to many different areas of the legal system. The many issues that Slashdot readers have identified with the Patent and Copyright systems are just a small part of a much bigger set of problems that share ethical conflict of interest as a key driver.
Unfortunately, most people that study the law in sufficient depth to be aware of these issues are also the same people who are intending to make a living from the practice of law. It should not be surprising (disappointing, perhaps, but not surprising) that they have very little to say about ethical conflicts of interest affecting their profession.
Putting this in other terms, ethics problems are a primary source of pollution in the US legal environment, one which has been choking this country for a long time. Just as many old-time industrialists were too busy making a quick buck to worry about the harm done to the natural environment by their factories and mines, a large percentage of legal professionals are too busy making tons of money to worry about the harm done to the social and legal environment by how they do business.
Until we can raise public awareness of the ethics issues in the legal profession, it is unlikely that anything can be done about the many problems. We need an equivalent of the environmental movement, focused on cleaning up the US legal system and minimizing further pollution, so that future generations can live in a better world than we do.
I don't understand the bit about N different randomly-named companies sending out demands for payment - which one of them really owns it? Presumably not more than one at a time? If there's some question about it, presumably the first thing you'd do in a court action would be to subpoena the plaintiff and all their records to get them to demonstrate that they were really the current and One True Owner, and while you're at it get them to specify exactly what they're claiming.
Meanwhile, this chain of spinoffs nonsense sounds like it's a crude attempt at some of the shell games in Charlie Stross's Accelerando...
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
Probably it was the late 80s? Anyway, scanner-OCR things were about $10,000, and I worked for a large bureaucratic company with a large bureaucratic purchasing department, and my department wanted to buy one for our lab. After wrangling the usual bureaucratic issues about capital vs. expense budgets, when we eventually to buy it, our purchasing department considered this to be a computer system, and tried to get the vendor to sign the same kind of contract we'd have for a multi-million dollar mainframe from IBM, except that IBM had as many lawyers as we did so they'd have thrown out most of the stupid stuff. It wasn't just the issue of workmen's comp insurance that bothered them (look, we'll ship it to you by UPS, so we won't be suing you if our guy trips in the mailroom.) It was the patent indemnification that killed the deal - the vendor was a small business and wasn't going to be able to insure against any possible lawsuits (even though they didn't expect there to be any of them.)
Unfortunately for the prior art claims with the current idiots, this thing didn't trigger the magic "business method for doing [something standard] over the Internetz!" patent approach; it probably did 9600 baud RS232 or something.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks