:Science Magazine: Internet Patents Choking the Web?
Science Magazine: Internet Patents Choking the Web? Jun 3, 1999, 12 :51 UTC (4 Talkback[s]) (4232 reads)
"Every day on average last year, the U.S. government issued nearly 50
patents on Internet tools and other software. But this apparent blitz of
creativity may belie a big problem: Many of these inventions, some critics
charge, aren't original enough to have warranted a patent and could hinder
the Internet's growth by blocking free, unpatented standards.
"The latest dustup is over a patent awarded last January to Seattle-based
Intermind, for its software to help Web surfers track how sites they visit
use their personal data. The company claims on its Web site...
that its patent may be infringed by an "open-source,"
or freely shared, privacy protocol developed by the World Wide Web
Consortium (W3C), an industry and academic group that comes up with
standards like HTML, the language for writing Web pages."
Complete story. (Free site registration required. Link takes you to
'NetWatch'. Scroll down to find story.)
