[Patents] Symantec patents on module upgrading

[PILCH Hartmut phm@a2e.de]

According to

        http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/8/16794.html

Symantec has patented the principle of updating a virus checking program
by loading extra modules from the Net.

<<

Symantec said the patents refer to its "micro-definition architecture"
system which is integrated into Norton AntiVirus 2001, Norton
AntiVirus 2000 and Norton AntiVirus 5.0, as well as Symantec's
corporate anti-virus products. Microdefinitions enable LiveUpdate,
Symantec's schedulable and automatic update mechanism, to run up to
four times faster.

...

It's also worth noting that the ability to download files that allow
incremental patching of existing running software has been available
for many years on Unix and Linux systems - and what Symantec is doing
seems only to be "fine-tweaking" this.

In a statement, Symantec said the patents could also be applied to
technology involved in the "update general computer readable files,
which may include data files, program files, database files, graphics
files, or audio files".

>>

The concerned patents are:

US patent US6052531
        multi-tiered incremental software updating
US patent US6167407
        backtracked incremental updating

-phm