FC: Weekly column: Mailblocks' dubious anti-spam patents

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

http://news.com.com/2010-1032_3-1003921.html

   In-boxes that fight back
   By Declan McCullagh
   May 19, 2003, 4:00 AM PT

   If you're overwhelmed by spam like the rest of us, there aren't any
   really terrific solutions.
   
   You can try smarter spam filters, though you'll still have to verify
   that legit mail isn't swept up among the dross. You can switch to a
   new e-mail address and pray that nobody except friends and family ever
   learn it. Or wait a few years for micropayments, small cash payments
   required to deliver e-mail that could make it uneconomical for
   spammers to annoy us.
   
   But the spam-blocking technique that's attracted the most attention
   among start-ups recently is a very simple one: Challenge-response (CR)
   technology. When your mailbox is protected by a CR system, anyone who
   tries to contact you will be greeted with a response saying something
   like "click on this link to deliver this message" or "type in the word
   you see in the box above." Well-designed CR utilities won't challenge
   mail from known correspondents or mail that you specifically asked to
   receive.
   
   The problem with CR systems is that one company, Mailblocks of Los
   Altos, Calif., claims to own all rights to the concept and hopes to
   prevent anyone else from selling such a system without paying hefty
   licensing fees.
   
   Mailblocks has purchased two patents, 6,199,102 (filed in 1997) and
   6,112,227 (filed in 1998), and has been aggressive in wielding them
   against competitors. Mailblocks' targets so far include Seattle-based
   SpamArrest and EarthLink (after the Internet provider said it would
   begin offering CR technology to subscribers by the end of May).
   Mailblocks has asked for a preliminary injunction in both suits.
   
   Phil Goldman, Mailblocks' chief executive, is no stranger to the
   rough-and-tumble world of start-up companies. He got rich when he and
   two partners co-founded WebTV and sold the unprofitable venture to
   Microsoft in 1997 for a handy $425 million. (Anyone think he might be
   eyeing the same exit strategy again?)
   
   But Goldman has a problem. He's betting his company on the validity of
   the two patents, both of which are questionable because of other work
   that was published well before the filing dates of the Mailblocks
   patents.

   [...remainder snipped...]



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