For those of you who don't read my blog... (what? WHAT???) :P The German software maker Magix is gearing up to file a patent reexamination of the Balthaser Rich Internet Applications patent. They contacted me this week to ask for the Flash community’s help in assembling prior art.
Here’s what they say: "We have recently become aware of Neil Balthaser’s claims on the basis of US patent 7,000,180. We have also followed - and much appreciated! - the numerous reactions his patent registration prompted in the Flash community - your postings in a most prominent position; sentiment we fully share. Being potentially concerned by Balthaser’s claims ourselves, we are currently preparing a request for reexamination before the USPTO with the intent of disarming the patent to a most complete extent. In this regard we are approaching people who have been involved with RIA development and could potentially be contributing to a prior art list by sharing some of their knowledge. Our current prior art documentation incudes applications such as Worldo, Casper, Moonfruit, Macromedia Generator; it is still in the processus of completion. It is in this respect that we are asking whether you have any advice on the subject, including knowledge of prior art software/patents in order to make the reexam as successfull as possible. We appreciate all types of comment and information you might have with concern to the patentability shortcomings of Balthaser’s alleged invention. It is, we believe, in the interest of the entire programming community to resist the pressure imposed by a patenting practise such as the one used by Balthaser and tolerated, if not encouraged by the PTO. We are nonetheless confident that in this case a regular reexamination could reverse patent rights which do no service to either competition or innovation." What can you do? If you have any information on prior art or can help in any other way, please either leave a comment on my blog post (http://aralbalkan.com/695) or add your knowledge to the Balthaser Prior Art Discovery page on OSFlash (http://osflash.org/ balthaser_patent_prior_art_discovery) or contact Magix directly (http://site.magix.net/english-uk/home/magix-ag/contact/). Together, we can overturn this silly patent. Thanks, Aral _______________________________________________ osflash mailing list [email protected] http://osflash.org/mailman/listinfo/osflash_osflash.org
