2 on AOL IM PATENT -- ANOTHER CASE OF OUT OF CONTROL PTO -- Instant Messaging 29 years old today...

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

------ Forwarded Message
From: Brian Dear <brian () birdrock com>
Date: Thu, 19 Dec 2002 11:40:13 -0800
To: dave () farber net
Subject: Instant Messaging 29 years old today...

Hi Dave,

Thought you might be interested in this for the IP list...

Today marks the 29th anniversary of PLATO's instant messaging capability,
called TERM-talk.  I've put a screen-grab of the original announcement up
on this page:

  http://www.platopeople.com/termtalk.html

Considering all the talk in the news these days about the U.S. Patent and
Trademark Office granting AOL a patent for instant messaging, it's kind of
interesting that PLATO was doing it so long ago...

- Brian

Brian Dear
PLATO History Project
La Jolla, CA
brian () platopeople com
www.platopeople.com



------ End of Forwarded Message

Dave,

Curious to see how AOL/Mirabilis got a general patent for IM - Unix has had
the "talk" functionality for many many years. Does prior art no longer apply
in 
the world of the PTO?

cheers,

--sanjay

------------yahoo article below---------
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?
tmpl=story&ncid=582&e=2&cid=582&u=/nm/20021219/wr_nm/tech_internet_aol_dc

LONDON (Reuters) - Media giant AOL Time Warner has quietly won a U.S. patent
for instant messaging (news - web sites), a potential goldmine as the online
activity rivals mobile phone text-messaging as the most popular new
communication tool.


The patent, issued in September, grants AOL's instant messaging subsidiary
ICQ 
broad ownership rights to the technology, which enables users to chat
quickly 
and cheaply across the Internet.


The broad wording of the patent means AOL could get an important legal leg
up 
on rivals Microsoft Corp. and Yahoo, the other players in the potentially
lucrative instant messaging (IM) arena that have their own proprietary
technologies. 
<snip>

------------------------------------------------------------------
Sanjay Udani                              www.cis.upenn.edu/~udani
Distinguished MTS, Verizon Communications            udani () acm org
Adjunct Asst. Professor, University of Pennsylvania   703 351 2966




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