On 08-Dec-98 Ray Racine wrote:
> One thing and one thing only matters and that is the CLAIMS section of
> the patent which is usually at the end of the patent. YOU BEAT A PATENT
> BY GETTING AROUND THE CLAIMS.
Thanks for the information, Ray (and congrats on the patent(s) :-)
I did read through the claims, and the most used word is
'said'. Am I glad the Bard was not a lawyer.
Claim 1 (the most generic one) specifically mentions a client
running a browser, displaying a hypermedia document stored on
a server, that also contains information to enable the machine
running the browser to locate and execute a program external
to the original document for the purpose of controlling information
presented by the browser.
Claim 2 extends claim 1 by stating that the external program
(application) can be controlled through IPC from the browser.
Claim 3 adds continued control of the application even after
it has been launched.
Claim 4 adds indirection by having the browser issue commands
to the server, which sends data to the external program for the
purpose of controlling it. The 'instructions' required to interpret
the commands are located on the server.
Claim 5 stipulates that these instructions can also reside on the
client.
Claims 6-10 are essentially the same as 1-5, but specifically talk
about 'program product', and seem to be the patenteze required to
turn the whole shebang into a 'product' and not an idea (IMHO).
IANAL, but it seems clear to me that the patent doesn't describe
Java as a portable language. It doesn't deal with languages at all.
It also specifically requires a system comprising a client, a server
and a network, a browser, and an *external* application. A Java
applet running *inside* a browser's address space is not an external
application.
IMHO, Cringely made an ass of himself.
Stefaan
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Perfection is reached, not when there is no longer anything to add,
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