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AOL Patents the Instant Message
Posted by Raul Ruiz on Tuesday, December 17 @ 21:27:25 EST Patent

MSNBC is reporting that AOL has secured a patent on instant messaging applications by way of its subsidiary, ICQ. The patent is quite broad and covers any application that permits multiple users to determine whether other users are present and then communicate with them.

 
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Yet Another Ridiculous Patent

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Re: AOL Patents the Instant Message (Score: 1)
by HowardGilbert on Tuesday, December 17 @ 23:48:24 EST
(User Info | Send a Message) http://www.yale.edu/pclt
Unless there is something more specific, this patent will never survive the search for prior art. Starting in 1967 IBM created a virtual network of virtual personal computers, the CMS system that we ran at Yale a decade later. Users could find out who was logged on and send them messages. When the first PC networks were created, you could find people and send them messages. Students used to logon to the Pantheon computers here so you could use "finger" to find who was logged on and send them messages. IM is as old as the first timesharing systems.


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Re: AOL Patents the Instant Message (Score: 0)
by Anonymous on Wednesday, December 18 @ 00:13:09 EST
Although HowardGilbert has pointed out very obvious truths, I still worry about a few things with this developement.

1) the fact the patent was even granted in the first place says something, isn't the Patent Office supposed to look for prior art before granting a patent?

2) even if this patent is thrown out(which it likely will be), before that happens AOL could use the very presence of this patent to kill competitors' products, like MSN IM, Yahoo IM and even 3rd party AIM clients. And what about the pre-existing technologies mentioned above by Howard?

3) why did the even persue this patent? It seems just as useless as the SSL and cookie patents that they have and never enforce(probably because they can't).


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