RE: [xml-dev] More patent funnies!

["Bullard, Claude L (Len)" <clbullar@ingr.com>]

Note the date: 1994.  There was plenty of concepts that 
lead to his patent, but someone with deep understanding 
of the prior art has to look at the patent and someone 
with deep pockets has to attempt to overturn it.  There 
isn't a joke in there because he could win and if he 
does, he has to bargain to collect.

Northrup is an example.  This is the lone hacker, the 
hero of the netGen sitting down to become wealthy by 
his own talent and creation.  And who will step up 
to oppose him?  MS can afford to pay him so they don't 
have to.  Some corporations will fight him or try to 
stop him by other means but if the patent holds, eventually 
they pay up.  Who will try to overturn
the patent system itself, who will catcall and humiliate and 
light torches, who will burn down the very system designed 
to enable them to benefit from their work?

netGen will.  Deliciously ironic.  

len

-----Original Message-----
From: Jeff Rafter [mailto:jeffrafter@defined.net]

But wait... isn't there a wealth of prior art? I don't understand the claim.
So he made a system that connects through TCP/IP and returns the results of
a software service on the Internet (web). Uh, I thought that was what
browsers did (e.g. Mosaic). That's also what credit companies have done for
years and years. I'm just a young pup-- you all start talking about patents
and lawyers and I head for the skatepark... this one doesn't make sense
though. And isn't his operating system patent just like WIMP (was that what
it was called?) that let's you run windows apps on Linux? or at best JAVA?
Write Once Run Anywhere?

Did I miss the joke? I was laughing when I read it.... <g/>