Instant Messaging bot patent

["Sylvain Perchaud" <sylvain@europe-shareware.org>]

ActiveBuddy, a company producing Instant Messaging bots, was granted a
very broad patent on IM bot technology.

US Patent: US6430602
<http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-P
arser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=/netahtml/search-
bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=ft00
&s1=activebuddy&OS=activebuddy&RS=activebuddy>

We don't know yet if the company filed the same patent in Europe.


As usual with software patents, the patent will be used as an agressive
tool against competitors. ActiveBuddy says it would move swiftly to
enforce the patent.
This is, again, a crucial technology that the patent owner didn't
created. Of course prior arts exist (see the Internet News' article), but
SMEs don't have the lawyers to resist cease & desist letters.

See the Internet News' article:
<http://www.internetnews.com/bus-news/article.php/1446781>

A few citations:

"
WiredBots CEO Chris McClelland was also among the developer crowd wary of
ActiveBuddy's patent win. "Patents block innovation and hurt consumers.
When big companies use their financial might to patent software, they
undermine the very nature of software, its openness," McClelland argued."


"Jupiter analyst Michael Gartenberg isn't surprised by the brouhaha
surrounding the patent win. "This is just the latest example of a company
that has picked up a key patent on critical technology and is going to
use it to exploit the market. It's not surprising that the smaller
developers are crying foul," he said."


-- 
Sylvain Perchaud
http://www.europe-shareware.org