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                Date: 1999-12-23
                 
                 
                Internet, Wilder Westen, Copyright
                
                 
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      q/depesche  99.12.23/oans 
 
Internet, Wilder Westen, Copyright 
 
Nicht ganz taufrisch vom Printdatum, aber vom Inhalt her  
alles andere als in/aktuell. Wie E-Kommerz vom  
Patentierwahn/sinn gewürgt wird, es liest sich abenteuerlich. 
 
Das Paradigma der antiken Firma Xerox und ihre vormalige  
Blockade der Konkurrenz durch Patentierung allen Kopierens  
auf Normal/papier möge ein warnend Beispiel sein.  
 
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relayed by Dave Banisar banisar@2rad.net 
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December 11, 1999 
 
 
Surging Number of Patents Engulfs Internet Commerce 
 
ll over the Internet, from the most popular search engines to  
personal home pages, are buttons that offer to send users to  
an online store where they can buy books or music or other  
merchandise. Hundreds of thousands of sites have added  
these links because they earn commissions if any of their  
users click on them and then buy something.  
 
This week, those sites suddenly found themselves at risk of  
violating a patent just granted to a New York company called  
LinkShare Corp. That patent gives LinkShare the right to  
block anyone from using such an arrangement for links  
between sites with commission payments.  
 
The number of patents related to the Internet has been  
skyrocketing.  
 
... 
"This is the end of the wild, wild West on the Web," said  
Stephen Messer, LinkShare's founder and chief executive.  
"There are laws that protect the pioneers from pirates who  
steal all of their good ideas. Everything you love to do on the  
Internet will have some sort of patent on it."  
... 
Priceline.com, for example, has sued Microsoft and its travel  
service, Expedia, over Priceline's patented arrangement  
letting customers name their price for flights and hotels.  
Yahoo has been sued by an inventor who claims a patent on  
a shopping-cart feature on its site. And DoubleClick Inc., a  
big Internet advertising network, has sued two smaller  
companies over its patent on an ad-targeting technology.  
 
Some suits are already changing the face of the Internet. Two  
weeks ago, for example, a federal judge issued a preliminary  
injunction barring Barnesandnoble.com from letting  
customers buy goods with a single mouse click, a method  
Amazon has patented. 
.. 
 
"People are getting patents on things that are too general,"  
said Jerry Yang, the co-founder of Yahoo. "It's not healthy for  
patents to be used to stop other people from doing  
business."  
 
One reason for the surprise is that patent applications in the  
United States are secret until they are granted. And the U.S.  
Patent and Trademark office is only now approving  
applications filed two or three years ago in the formative  
stages of the Web. The office granted 1,390 patents related  
to the Internet in the first half of 1999, compared with only  
648 in all of 1997. 
.. 
For example, Sightsound.com of Mount Lebanon, Pa., says  
it has a patent on the entire concept of selling music through  
digital downloads, one of the hottest trends on the Internet.  
Sightsound has demanded that anyone selling music in  
digital form online pay it a royalty of 1 percent. It is suing  
CDNow, the online music store being acquired by Time  
Warner and Sony, to assert that claim.  
.. 
At the end of the day, Internet sites may be forced to pay  
royalties to use some of the most popular features. And in  
some cases, patent holders may keep some of the best  
ideas to themselves, the way Xerox, for example, blocked  
competitors from offering plain-paper copiers for years.  
 
Volltext, aus Gründen des Copyrights regist/rierungs/pfl/ichtig 
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/12/biztech/articles/11web.html
                   
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edited by  
published on: 1999-12-23 
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