Community: A Patent Plan of Action

[ Thanks to Lane
Friesen for this submission. ]

A little background:

I published an article on javaboutique in June, 2000 (it is in
their
archives and was linked on Linux Today as
well). I released an e-commerce front end, based in the technique
described in the article, as Open Source. I’m now posting updated
information, in the form of a pre-release Internet
article.

In the previous article, I exploited a new form of storage–it
uses the JAVA VM to develop persistence from page to page; I
coupled this with a new form of Java-based
terminate-and-stay-resident programming. The result is temporary,
user-specific, secure Web Memory.

Potentially, it could greatly reduce web congestion, and might
serve as the basis for a real-time Internet operating system.

The technique has a bandwidth–if too many people use it, then
it will not work for anyone. To protect bandwidth, I applied for a
US patent. I now have US Patent 6,636,863 that does this job (to
read the text, visit the patent search
page and input the patent number). It was a lengthy process,
and included a quality review by a number of US Patent Office
examiners–hence the gap in time between the original article and
this follow-up.

Open Source generally avoids patents–please note that Web
Memory has bandwidth, and is not useful without a
patent.

There is an interesting aspect to all of this that coupld affect
the larger community. It appears that my patent is sufficiently
broad that it covers Web Services in general. A
terminate-and-stay-resident program happens to be a primitive Web
Service; communication with it establishes persistence between web
pages–and that is what I patented. Patent claims extend
equally to Web Memory and to Web Services.

I could, of course, make the patent completely Open Source, but
then I would lose bandwidth protection for Web Memory. It is not my
desire to get involved in litigation or to block W3C standards.
Surely, the Open Source community can suggest a wise course of
action.

In summary,

• Web Memory is secure, client-based, user-specific memory, based
  in the JAVA VM present in computers, cell phones, Palm Pilots and
  chips. It works in dotNET as well. The bandwidth for this technique
  is now protected. Is the method useful to the Open Source
  community?
• The patent claims appear to be much broader than I intended.
  Assuming the patent stands up, and the claims truly are as broad as
  they appear to be, what should be done with this patent?

I would like to solicit the input of the Open Source community
in particular. What is a wise course of action that would benefit
the Internet end user?

Best regards,

Lane Friesen