Thursday, February 23, 2006

Patent Awarded for Rich Media

A broad patent awarded to Balthaser Online could require companies that offer rich media applications to pay a licensing fee.

The patent, which was applied for in 2001 and awarded last week, covers any use of controlling rich media over the Internet through technologies such as Flash, AJAX and Java.

Huh? Well, the patent office has been known to slip up a time or two, and I'm sure that several companies will be contacting the Patent Office to show that they were using rich media applications before the patent was applied for, and should they prove that this "prior art" exists, then the patent could be reduced in scope or rescinded.

From the description, the patent appears overreaching, but crazier things have happened in the patent world.

Posted By Jason Dowdell at 09:48 AM
Permanent Link: Patent Awarded for Rich Media | Comments (0)

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