[FoRK] Re: Patent madness

[Rohit Khare]

>

Hey, gang, I just wanted to post this reference to patent 6418462, in  
case some future search for prior art comes up. IIRC, Ocean Tomo was  
a player in the "CommerceOne Web Services" patent rigamarole...

> Hi!
>
> Sorry this got buried in my inbox -- with a subject line like that,  
> you know it's got to be s*am :) :)
>
> I gather that you're not a party to the patent at hand, though I'd  
> be glad to offer advice to anyone who was nosing around the area.  
> Ourselves, we decided against patenting because of the Netscape  
> multi-part 'push' proposals in the mid-90's...
>
> Looks like the comment period on that news article is finished so I  
> suspect merely posting to FoRK with this pat # reference would be  
> the best I could do to lay down a marker if anyone needs to find me.
>
> Would you mind if I reposted this exchange to FoRK?
>
> Best,
>   RK
>
> On Mar 25, 2008, at 1:39 PM, Brent Ashley wrote:
>> Hello Rohit;
>>
>>  I did a bunch of Remote Scripting innovation way back when, never  
>> spoke with you although I had a lot of conversations with Scott  
>> Andrew Le Pera when he was at KnowNow.
>>
>>  Today I saw this article (http://www.regdeveloper.co.uk/ 
>> 2008/03/25/ajax_patent_auction/) about a patent that seems to be  
>> for sale.  From what I've read, it's specific to a server- 
>> initiated backchannel, so very much like KnowNow's work and to my  
>> mind not analogous to most client-driven Ajax patterns.
>>
>>  I thought you would be interested to know since if anyone could  
>> provide prior art, it might be you.
>>
>> - Brent -
>>

AJAX patent threat to giants under the hammer

By Phil Manchester

IP 101 for Web 2.0

A patent scheduled for sale next month in San Francisco could  
threaten some of the biggest players on the internet leading Web 2.0.

Listed in Ocean Tomo's spring auction catalog as lot number seven,  
patent number 6,418,462: "Discloses methods allowing clients to  
perform tasks through a sideband communication channel, in addition  
to the main communication channel between a client and server".

In supporting documentation it is claimed that pretty much the whole  
of the web uses this method to operate AJAX-based applications.  
Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, Apple and eBay are identified as among  
those whose products "potentially" infringe on the patent.

Singled out are AJAX mashups including Google Maps and Gmail, and  
Microsoft "Live" - the latter being a broad and slightly nebulous  
category. 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.

The claim centers on the way AJAX uses background processes: "Most  
significantly, the patent is directed to the core concept fundamental  
to AJAX: extra data requested from the server may be loaded in the  
background, through an asynchronous data request channel, thereby  
ensuring that there is no interference with the display and behavior  
of the existing page".

Clearly if the claim is valid, the value of the patent - filed in  
1999 and issued in 2002 - is substantial. It will be interesting to  
see who bids and what the new owner does with it. One possible option  
on the table is to prosecute claimed infringers, cashing in through  
the US courts.

Ocean Tomo auction president Andrew Ramer said simply in a statement  
ownership of this patent presented a "unique opportunity" to secure  
the existing development efforts and provide "long-term competitive  
advantage" for developers, internet companies and sites in AJAX and  
Web 2.0.®