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Patent issued for Web caching
From: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Fri, 20 Oct 2006 15:04:11 -0400
Begin forwarded message: From: Brett Glass <brett () lariat net> Date: October 20, 2006 2:55:14 PM EDT To: dave () farber net, ip () v2 listbox com Subject: Patent issued for Web caching Dave:For IP, if you'd like. A patent has recently issued which appears to cover any and all forms of caching in a client/server system -- including the World Wide Web.The principal claim is for
"1. A method, including steps of: receiving a set of network objects in response to a first request to a server from a client; and maintaining said network objects in a cache memory in a cache engine, said cache engine connected via a network to the server and the client, said cache memory including mass storage; wherein said step of maintaining includes steps of recording said network objects in said cache memory and retrieving said network objects from said cache memory, so as to substantially minimizes a time required for retrieving said network objects from said mass storage".
In short, the patent is broad enough to cover virtually any form of caching in a client/server situation. The link to the patent at the USPTO is quite long, so I've run it through TinyURL.com for the convenience of IP readers. The patent is at
http://tinyurl.com/ym7xq8Note that the patent issued in September of this year, but was applied for in 1998. This was long after the CERN HTTP cache, the DARPA-funded "Harvest project," the NLANR Information Resource Caching project (IRCache), the release of the first version of Squid, and the release of the Cisco Cache Engine, so there appears to be ample prior art. One can only wonder how this patent possibly could have issued.
--Brett Glass, LARIAT.NET ------------------------------------- You are subscribed as lists-ip () insecure org To manage your subscription, go to http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/
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