If you haven't seen the news yet, I found out thanks to
http://slashdot.org
, Microsoft is pulling one of their dirtiest stunts ever in their attempt
to destroy Netscape. If anyone doesn't think Microsoft is evil this should
convince them, unless they are niave enough to think Microsoft isn't behind
this!
In what would appear to be a result of their assimilation of Wang last
month, Wang has announced a Lawsuit against Netscape for Patent
infringement. Basically Wang is claiming to have "Save As..."
patented?!?!?! For an explanation see
http://www.mozilla.org/legal/wangsuit.html I also like the Graphic and
comment at
http://www.mozilla.org
The problem is, Wang is sueing them for something that almost EVERY piece
of software available does! Netscape needs examples of software that do
the things in the patent prior to March 30th, 1983. See the below
information.
Wang might be able to use this to get a Court injunction to prevent
Netscape from distributing Navigator?!?! A lot of the Free Software
fanatics are seeing this as a direct attack against free software by
Microsoft, since Netscape just released the Navigator source code.
Zane
Here is the portion of the statement that is the most important:
-----------
Wang is asserting that a patent that it holds for a video text system is
infringed by the Netscape browser. Netscape is vigorously defending the
lawsuit. Wang contends the patent discloses the invention of:
Saving web pages retrieved from a server using "Save As" (See Claim
23, 24),
Bookmarks (Claims 20-22),
Saving files with file extensions and then retrieving the pages and
decoding the files based on the file extension (Claim 38).
The patent was filed in 1984. We believe the patent is noninfringed,
unenforceable, and invalid based on, among other things, prior art such as
the
Alto & Star computers from Xerox Parc, Terminal Emulators, connectivity
software prevelant in the the early 80s such as CrossTalk, Unix
symbolic links (ln -s), and various other "video text" systems like
Telidon, Prestel, Mupid used in the late 70s, early 80s.
It's easy to say "of course that's invalid", but what is required are
specific references to prior art. If you know of additional prior art
publications,
software programs, books, or systems in existence --prior to March 30,
1983-- which disclose and/or describe the claimed elements send us a
message. Send responses or questions to mozilla.org. Please include the
following information:
Name of the Publication or System
Date of the Publication or Date System Was Publicly Known
Features it Discloses
Where Can the Publication or System Be Found (ie. university,
reference library, company, contact person)
----------
| Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Adminstrator |
| healyzh_at_ix.netcom.com (primary) | Linux Enthusiast |
| healyzh_at_holonet.net (alternate) | Classic Computer Collector |
+----------------------------------+----------------------------+
| For Empire of the Petal Throne and Traveller Role Playing, |
| see
http://www.dragonfire.net/~healyzh/ |
| For the collecting of Classic Computers with info on them. |
| see
http://www.dragonfire.net/~healyzh/museum.html |
Received on Fri Apr 24 1998 - 22:25:54 BST