[FYI] [theinquirer] Network Associates patents file deletion

[Tim Bartel <fitug-debate@computerkultur.org>]

Hallo,

http://www.theinquirer.net/Default.aspx?article=14487

---[schnipp]---

Network Associates patents file deletion

Your data is gone, but the way it happens is innovative

By Rick Reroy: Wednesday 03 March 2004, 11:18

NETWORK ASSOCIATES is proudly telling the world about a new patent
they've been granted by the US Patent and Trademarks Office (USPTO).
The patent describes such innovative procedures as: A method for
cleaning a computer, comprising:

downloading a cleaning program separate from an anti-virus propram to a computer;
searching for undesired software on the computer utilizing the cleaning program;
searching for undesired data on the computer utilizing the cleaning program;
deleting the undesired software from the computer utilizing the cleaning program;
deleting the undesired data from the computer utilizing the cleaning program; 

etc. The patent goes on to describe such revolutionary techniques as:
Automated upgrades of software that needs upgrading and even:
Performing diagnostics on the computer.

Clearly none of this is in any way "obvious [...] to a person having
ordinary skill in the art", since otherwise those stringent examiners
at the USPTO would not have been allowed to grant the patent.

It goes without saying that nobody thought of doing this before, or
those clever desk-boffins at the USPTO would have thrown the patent
out for 'prior art'.

We at the INQUIRER would like to contgratulate Network Associates on
their excellent invention. They will clearly want to make good use of
the patent. As a first step, might we recommend suing Microsoft for
their windowsupdate.microsoft.com website, which is clearly in blatant
violation of the patent, filed October 4, 2002? Particularly sneaky,
we feel, for Microsoft to use a time machine to start the violations
already before the patent filing date!

All this adds extra urgency to the need for US-style software patents
here in Europe. Clearly, innovation is being stifled on a huge scale
when groundbreaking inventions like "generating a report including a
graph that is based on a statistical analysis" are denied the
protection of a state-enforced monopoly.

---[schnapp]---

Tschuess, Tim.

-- 
"Sie sind nicht berechtigt, die Software in Verbindung mit einer Site
 zu verwenden, die Microsoft, MSN, MSNBC, Expedia oder deren Produkte
 oder Dienstleistungen herabsetzt."
       Lizenzbedingungen von Frontpage 2002, Bestandteil von Office XP


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