Well, uhm…. link to that patent. I somehow miss the point there (seems to become a habit). On various websites this was called a patent for AJAX. If this is the case (sorry, but I have better things to do than to read that whole patent file), this might really get entertaining. For one: AJAX is for me more like a bunch of design patterns than really all-new technologies. And since do we patent design patterns? Another idea: That patent was file on February 9, 2001. Nice for Balthaser Online. Just bad that the core of AJAX, the XMLHttpRequest object was basically invented by Microsoft with Internet Explorer 5 for MS Windows, which was released in March 2000. So I guess, they don’t mean the XMLHttpRequestion object.
I have just looked at the first few points of this nice patent, but from what it seems to me, this is not only about … web pages but also about their creation. It’s going from creating web pages with by using a web page (anybody of you remember the first steps of such things in the 1990s?) and allowing the user to add animations (building GIFs using a web page ;) ) and also going with timing of those so-called “rich-media components”. Heck, you aren’t even allowed to write SMIL sourcecode on a bulletin board.
… Sorry, but reading all the 83 points of that patent is definitly more than I’m motivated to do.
Just a few things I’ve found quite entertaining:
Programs such as Microsoft's Visual Basic® provide website designers with the ability to create websites more quickly by allowing designers to create websites graphically instead of by coding primarily in HTML. Patent
You all create your websites using VB, right? ;)
Restricting website design to experts alone constrains the rapid development of new high-quality websites for two reasons. First, the number of Internet users who may design high-quality sites using rich-media technologies is limited. Second, the arduousness of designing a polished website even for an expert developer limits the overall throughput of designs for website-developing companies.A need exists for a tool allowing developers to create rich-media websites and other applications in a more efficient manner. Patent
And somehow this patent should help here excactly how?
Man, this patent even goes as far as claiming general calculation of CPU cycles needed to process a specific … rich-media component which may give the provider means to offer the users adapted versions … WEP anyone? ;)
Scene checksums may be computed by summing the component checksums for all components in a scene. If the checksum for each parameter type does not equal the expected value, the computer process may halt the loading of a user project and display an error message. Patent
Perhaps someone could explain the whole thing to me: In a patent, does implementing one of these so-called “claims” already require you to contact the patent holder or do you have to implement all of them? In the first case: This patent is in my opinion not worth the file size of its HTML page because from what I’ve seen the core stuff mentioned there, existed also for websites before 2001. For example the webbuilder stuff. Drag’n drop was according to walterzorn.com already available in Internet Explorer 4. Not to mention that there is nowhere a real definition for “Rich-media application” in this patent.
I somehow think, that SCO has finally one friend on this planet.
Do you want to give me feedback about this article in private? Please send it to comments@zerokspot.com.
Alternatively, this website also supports Webmentions. If you write a post on a blog that supports this technique, I should get notified about your link 🙂