[LINK] More worrying patent claims

[Michael Lean]

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This is even less amusing than the unsmiley patent.
Mike

ALTAVISTA SAYS IT OWNS WEB INDEXING TECHNOLOGY
AltaVista has claimed a patent on a method of indexing Web sites used by
most search engines and company intranets, and is threatening to sue
companies using these search techniques for patent infringement. "We
believe that virtually everyone out there who indexes the Web is in
violation of at least several of [AltaVista's] key patents," says David
Wetherell, CEO of CMGI, AltaVista's parent company. AltaVista owns 38
patents, "many of which we think are fundamental to the search area," and
has applications pending for another 30, says Wetherell. "If you index a
distributed set of databases -- that's what the Internet is. And even
within intranets, that's one of the patents." AltaVista's move will
intensify the debate over to what extent companies should be allowed to
claim monopolies over methods that have become building blocks of the
Internet. "If nothing is done, the Web will become fenced in by competing
patents, turning an open, free and transparent playing field into a
proprietary wasteland littered with nonsensical and stifling legislation,"
says one critic, CEO of a Web design and development company. (Financial
Times 25 Jan 2001)
http://news.ft.com/news/industries/infotechnology

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