Automatic Software Downloading Now Patented

from the how-is-this-not-obvious? dept

The latest in a long line of patent hoarding companies to come out of nowhere with a patent for something obvious to threaten lots of companies is British Technology Group. They're now waving around a a patent for automatic software downloads for things like anti-virus updates and are threatening a number of companies, including Microsoft, if they don't pay up. First off, there must be some prior art on this. Automatic software downloads are hardly a "new" technology. It would also be interesting to hear how this is possibly "non-obvious" considering that tons of companies offer this feature on their software, and its unlikely that most of them did so because they dug up some obscure patent and "stole" the idea. Instead, they just implemented a perfectly obvious idea to improve their own software. Now, thanks to the patent hoarding process, just about any software product that needs regular automatic updates will be more expensive, or won't work properly. This is innovation?
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  1. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 15 Jun 2004 @ 9:30am

    No Subject Given

    Anyone got a patent on patent hoarding?

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. identicon
    Gary Potter, 15 Jun 2004 @ 9:41am

    Patent Hoarding

    All it will take is one challenger and lots of time for attorneys to thump chests and bill hours. What a waste!

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 15 Jun 2004 @ 10:47am

    Gator

    Has Gator patented "automatic software downloads you didn't ask for" yet?

    link to this | view in thread ]

  4. identicon
    NOBODY, 15 Jun 2004 @ 11:41am

    No Subject Given

    Or how about the pop up windows when you're not even using your web browser. That would make a great patent for gator.

    link to this | view in thread ]


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