Balthaser, a US company, has been awarded a patent which it claims covers the design and creation of rich media applications on the Internet.
Balthaser announced on Tuesday that it has been granted US patent 7,000,180 by the United States Patent & Trademark Office.
According to information on the USPTO's Web site, this patent covers "Methods, systems, and processes for the design and creation of rich-media applications via the Internet".
According to a summary of the patent, "The present invention relates to the method of providing users with the ability to create rich-media applications via the Internet."
"In a specific embodiment, users may access a host Web site supplying the ability to create rich-media applications, examine the available product set, and construct a rich-media application on the host Web site. In a specific embodiment, the host Web site enables the user to modify an existing rich-media application on the host Web site," the summary continues.
It appears that Balthaser intends to licence this patent to companies who deliver rich media services over the Web using techologies such as Flash, AJAX and Java.
"This new addition to our patent portfolio is a pioneering patent and provides significant licensing opportunities for both Balthaser and our licensees," said Neil Balthaser, chief executive officer of Balthaser, in a statement.
"The patent covers all rich media technology implementations including Flash, Flex, Java, AJAX and XAML and all device footprints which access rich-media Internet applications including desktops, mobile devices, set-top boxes and video game consoles. Balthaser will be able to provide licenses for almost any Rich-Media Internet Application across a broad range of devices and networks," Balthaser added.
Adobe, one of the market leaders in the rich media space, is expected to respond to Balthaser's patent award on Thursday.
It's possible that Balthaser may struggle to enforce its patent, because of prior art — the process where a patent is invalid if it can be proven that the innovation in question already existed before the patent was filed.
Balthaser filed its patent application on 9 February, 2001. Back in 1999, a company called Javu Technologies launched a product called VideoFarm that allowed PC users to create and manage multimedia content over the Internet.
Bola Rotibi, senior analyst at Ovum, suggested that the award of patent 7,000,180 to Balthaser should focus attention on the issue of software patents.
"While Europe continues to prevaricate on bringing software patents laws inline with the US, Balthaser's patent awards, and its consequences for leading players, demonstrates both the good and bad of software patents and gives us a good reason for careful deliberation before we follow the US's lead," said Rotibi.
"Players such as Microsoft, Adobe, Google, Yahoo to name but a few, are making significant investments in rich Internet and interactive technology. Many are placing bets that this technology in conjunction with hand held device proliferation and embedded technology is the gateway to a market that sees a convergence between consumer, workplace and appliance interactions. This is a defining market — not unlike the effect the PC had for Microsoft — and the bedrock of future software applications," Rotibi added.
Talkback
Who is interested in Prior Art? I did not do analysis (obviously), but Internet Pizza Server is online since 1994!!!
http://www.ecst.csuchico.edu/~pizza/intro.html
http://www.ecst.csuchico.edu/~pizza/
TVs have shown moving pictures and sound for many years. Books have had words and pictures for even longer. All this is is a software programmer obviously copying old ideas. Give the job to 500 programmers and they will all come up with a solution so why is it patentable?
"...demonstrates both the good and bad of software patents"
Well it's more of a "business method" patent than it is a software patent, and it is the granting of patents such as this one, which claim the exclusive rights to so much for so little disclosure (none), that has brought the patent system into disrepute even in the eyes of those unaware of what is wrong in principle with software patents. Read the claims of this latest abomination and ask yourself what you have learned from it. Has it contributed anything at all to progress in the sciences and useful arts? Does it disclose any particular method of doing what it describes in its claims? No - it simply claims the doing of it. Claim one, for example, is equivalent to:
A method for users to create and maintain a rich-media application on said host website via the Internet comprising: creating and maintaining a rich-media application on said host website via the Internet.
It is far from the only such tautologous abuse of the patent system I have seen, but it is one of the worst, and I cannot imagine what Rotibi supposes this despicable document demonstrates that is good about software or business method patents (even if it was logically possible for a single patent to do such a thing). Perhaps ZDNet could ask Rotibi to explain?
It shows the failure of software patents!
I have been reading through a lot of claims looping back to previous claims disclosing nothing.
I fully agree with the previous message of mr. Hayes.
To me it was similar to reading a "How to create/change content with your media creation software program" Done long before 2001.
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....It's possible that Balthaser may struggle to enforce its patent, because of prior art — the process where a patent is invalid if it can be proven that the innovation in question already existed before the patent was filed....
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Isn't it the task of a patent office to check for prior art before granting it, rather than leaving it to a judge to decide afterwards??
This patent, to my humble opinion, isn't even worth the paper written on!
much prior art. patent will be thrown out on first challenge.
another garbage software patent.