Dave's Handsome Radio Blog

Patents threaten to kill creativity in all aspects of technology.

Tuesday, May 01, 2001

Linux Journal: "User interface pioneer Douglas Engelbart, who demonstrated a mouse-driven hypertext system called NLS in 1968, said in an interview Wednesday that he will help Prodigy defend itself against a patent infringement lawsuit filed by British Telecom. BT is suing Prodigy for infringement of BT's patent on hyperlinks." 8:54:39 PM

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Saturday, February 10, 2001

Dan Gillmor: I sent another e-mail to an Amazon PR person -- that's three so far -- asking whether the company has filed for a patent on its Honor System payment method. Still no reply. 8:37:43 PM

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Tuesday, February 06, 2001

News.Com: Amazon debuts Honor System. Dubbed the Amazon Honor System, the new payment method will allow Web sites to solicit small donations from visitors or charge for content on a pay-per-view basis. The system will tie into Amazon's one-click payment feature and Amazon's customer database... (Shouldn't we ask first if they've taken out a patent on this?) 10:04:41 AM

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Monday, January 22, 2001

Atomz.Com: "The key to the Atomz Publish system is its patent-pending templating system, which allows Web designers to clearly separate Web content from site design, and then give access to non-technical users of the Web site so that they can edit the content themselves." It must be a joke. 7:03:28 PM

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Friday, January 12, 2001

There's a big debate on the XML-DEV list about a Sun patent interfering with the W3C Xpointer activity. A famous pundit, the W3C, a major platform vendor, and a browser feature that (as far as I know) no major browser implements. Possible prior art. A disruption in the flow of new ideas. (xmlhack has been covering the story.) 8:00:55 AM

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Tuesday, January 09, 2001

News.Com: Priceline, Expedia settle patent infringement suit. Under the settlement, Expedia, an Internet travel-booking service controlled by Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft, will continue to operate its Price Matcher services and will pay undisclosed royalties to Priceline. Priceline, based here, is an Internet-based seller of services using a name-your-own price format. 6:01:10 PM

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First Monday: The expansion of the patent system. 7:01:09 AM

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Monday, January 08, 2001

SF Chronicle: "More and more, our own government has proven itself willing to hand big corporations like Cisco this kind of financial home court advantage -- for a fee. It comes in the form of U.S. Patent Law." 2:41:42 PM

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Legal Battle Escalates Between Top Free ISPs. The federal courts awarded NetZero a temporary restraining order against Juno Monday over its ad banner technology. Juno says the technology is theirs and NetZero is the one infringing on its technology. 8:00:59 AM

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