VeriSign Now Holds A Patent On SiteFinder
from the this-is-patentable? dept
Back in 2003, VeriSign kicked off quite a bit of controversy with its "SiteFinder" plans. SiteFinder would see that you were trying to go to a non-existent domain name, and rather than send you the proper error message, would send a bunch of ads instead. VeriSign, of course, claimed that this would be useful, as some of the ads might point you to where you really wanted to go. The problem, of course, was that it broke how the internet was supposed to work -- and certain applications relied on the fact that the internet would work the way it was originally designed. VeriSign eventually pulled the service, though others have reimplemented it, mostly at the ISP level rather than the DNS level. However, now, as Slashdot points out, it appears that VeriSign owns a patent on the concept. The patent was granted a few months ago, and VeriSign has control over it thanks to an acquisition. The real question, though, is why is this patentable? The reason it hadn't been done before wasn't because it was some great invention that needed the extra incentives of a patent -- it was because most people thought it was a bad idea.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
Filed Under: patents, sitefinder
Companies: verisign
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
unless--does anyone know how this could come back to haunt us?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
On the flipside...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Never met a patent they didn't like
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Why wouldn't it be patentable?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Why wouldn't it be patentable?
Wow, I just realized how poor that English is. That's Warren G. Harding bad. Mea culpa.
Anyway, you get the point.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Why wouldn't it be patentable?
I'm... not sure I do. I've read it and read it and it's still fairly incomprehensible. Care to give it another go?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Why wouldn't it be patentable?
Er... the point being it wasn't non-obvious. It was a perfectly obvious idea that no one implemented because they thought it was a bad idea.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Why wouldn't it be patentable?
You got some evidence to prove that point? A conclusory statement like that won't get you very far. If you have some evidence as to how this was obvious to one skilled in the art in October 2000, I'd be interested to hear it.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
It's actually kinda related to a good idea.
Wow, a way for software patents to NOT be evil.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]