[DotGNU]Instant Messaging Bot Patent

[Seth Johnson]

(Forwarded from PATENTS list)

-------- Original Message --------
Date: Thu, 15 Aug 2002 20:44:06 +0200
From: "Sylvain Perchaud" <address@hidden>
To: Brevets <address@hidden>

ActiveBuddy, a company producing Instant Messaging bots, was
granted a very broad patent on IM bot technology.

US Patent: US6430602
> http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=/netahtml/search-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=ft00&s1=activebuddy&OS=activebuddy&RS=activebuddy>

We don't know yet if the company filed the same patent in
Europe.


As usual with software patents, the patent will be used as
an agressive tool against competitors. ActiveBuddy says it
would move swiftly to enforce the patent.

This is, again, a crucial technology that the patent owner
didn't created. Of course prior arts exist (see the Internet
News' article), but SMEs don't have the lawyers to resist
cease & desist letters.

See the Internet News' article:

> http://www.internetnews.com/bus-news/article.php/1446781>

A few citations:

" WiredBots CEO Chris McClelland was also among the
developer crowd wary of ActiveBuddy's patent win. "Patents
block innovation and hurt consumers.  When big companies use
their financial might to patent software, they undermine the
very nature of software, its openness," McClelland argued."

" Jupiter analyst Michael Gartenberg isn't surprised by the
brouhaha surrounding the patent win. "This is just the
latest example of a company that has picked up a key patent
on critical technology and is going to use it to exploit the
market. It's not surprising that the smaller developers are
crying foul," he said."

-- 
Sylvain Perchaud
http://www.europe-shareware.org