You Can Patent Advertising?

from the who-knew? dept

The folks at 24/7 Real Media are continuing their patent happy ways by announcing they've received yet another patent for online advertising. Recently, they've been extra aggressive in telling just about everyone that their online ads violate 24/7's patents. This latest one is for "sequential" ads - where the ad is shown in sequential segments. This is patentable? I would think Burma Shave, for one, might claim prior art. Once again, a company is patenting things that are not particularly unique, and then holding everyone else hostage unless they pay up. This is not helping innovation, it's making it more expensive.
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  1. identicon
    bastard sam, 15 Aug 2003 @ 9:22am

    No Subject Given

    Yep, and it will continue forever until process patents are invalidated.

    link to this | view in thread ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.