Wireless Management Of A Computer System: Patented

from the our-wonderful-patent-system dept

The patent system is just getting out of control. The latest is that a company named Expand Beyond has patented a system for wireless monitoring and management of computer systems. The patent (6,772,169) sounds incredibly broad, covering any systems where someone is using a portable device with a wireless connection to monitor computer systems. Why is this patentable? The big difference here is the "wireless" aspect -- which isn't a new technology. All they're doing is taking something that existed over a wired network before and making it wireless. To say that's "non-obvious" (as a patent must be) is a joke.
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


  • identicon
    Oliver Wendell Jones, 3 Sep 2004 @ 12:04pm

    Not new

    Didn't a whole bunch of people/companies/etc. rush out to file patents that consisted of "any random process or procedure" + "on the internet"?

    Now they're just replacing "on the internet" with "over a wireless connection"...

    Anyone got a guess when these kind of patents will eventually get thrown out?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    carlos granier, 6 Sep 2004 @ 6:36am

    No Subject Given

    Aren't TV remote controls "wireless management systems"? And those have been around long enough.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    speedy, 8 Sep 2004 @ 1:01pm

    The last gasp of a desperate company

    Expand Beyond is rapidly running out of cash in a market where their product can't hold its own against better constructed competing products. Since they have taken in and burned through $15 million in venture capital, they are probably holding this out to the VC community as a way to try to recover some of the money they blew.

    It is a sad...

    link to this | view in chronology ]


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.