Sniptools

Do you know about United States Patent No. 6,671,714? Well, you should. It grants one individual a patent for a method of assigning URL’s and e-mail addresses to members of a group (something that has been around since my mind can recall!)

Do you know about United States Patent No. 6,671,714? Well, you should. It grants *one* individual a patent for a method of assigning URL’s and e-mail addresses to members of a group that we have been using since a long, long time.

First, I thought register’s story was a joke. It’s one of the most ridiculous patents you have ever seen! The patent, recently granted to one Frank Weyer of Beverly Hills, California, grants the patent holder full rights to:

Sound familiar? Well, it should, because the patent describes what is essentially one of the most basic, most crucial underlying structures of the World Wide Web, namely the domain naming system. The concept of domains and subdomains, as well as the e-mail addresses associated with them, has been around for a long time but apparently has escaped being patented prior to now. Meyer, a lawyer by trade, has capitalized on that oversight, and as of December 30, 2003, Meyer owns it. And now he’s using it where it’ll do the most good — in court.

On January 17, 2004, Meyer brought suit against Internet heavyweights Network Solutions, Inc. and Register.com, claiming the two services are infringing upon Meyer’s newly-granted patent. In the suit Meyer claims damages of an unnamed amount and requests an immediate injunction against the two companies. Meyer states that he hopes to “work with” NSI and Register.com to license his patent. NSI and Register.com don’t seem to be cooperating thus far, however.

On mailing lists and on IRC, I’ve often railed about the idiotic screwballs who seem to run the US patent offices, and now they’ve gone and made my case for me. What kind of fool granted this patent? Clearly, whoever reviewed it has no working knowledge of the World Wide Web, otherwise the obviousness of the patent would be clear to all. Must we go out and patent breathing lest someone decide to license the technology to us poor humans?

Now comes the real test. Will Register.com and NSI fight this patent, or will they settle? Legal experts seem to think that, if fought, Meyer would lose. However, such fights cost money, and if Meyer’s thinly-veiled extortion plot “requests” only a small license fee, the registrars may decide to pay him off and save themselves the trouble.

I sincerely hope they do not. Already, our very way of life has been irretrievably altered by companies that settle rather than fight; the cumulative effect is that everything everywhere comes with warning labels, and everyone who slips and falls immediately thinks not of bruises but of dollar signs. Lawyers have bred a business generation of appeasers, and like all appeasement, giving in once leads to giving in more and more often.

There’s no love lost between myself and NSI (quite the opposite, actually) but I hope this case is won!

This post is tagged Musings