Walt,
I think those type of comments and questions about what is patentable or
not are unproductive to this list, mainly because patents are a complex
area of expertise. Unless you're a seasoned patent attorney, patent
examiner, or one that has submitted several patents and gone through the
examination process many times, all one can offer is something less than
a "armchair quarterback" opinion that will typically lead to even more
guessing and we'll end up getting excited over nothing.
Asking technical people for their opinions on the patent process is like
asking laypeople to comment on complex software architecture: you'll get
comments that are completely out of scope and wildly incorrect.
If there are any patent attorneys on this list, let them step forward.
The rest of us should focus on doing what this group is chartered to do.
See http://www.irtf.org/charters/asrg.html
Peter
-----Original Message-----
From: waltdnes(_at_)waltdnes(_dot_)org
[mailto:waltdnes(_at_)waltdnes(_dot_)org]
Sent: Friday, June 13, 2003 12:17 PM
To: ASRG list
Subject: Re: [Asrg] US Spam patents: Partial list
Just how broad are these C/R ("Challenge/Response") patents
anyways? As a university student approximately 30 years ago,
I spent a couple of summers in the Canadian Armed Forces
Militia (i.e. reserves), as a summer job. One item we
learned was... wait for it... challenge/response to let the
"good guys" in and keep the "bad guys" out. I'm sure that
any military college will have manuals detailing how it's
done. This is an ancient military practice, and I don't see
why computer software doing it versus a soldier on patrol
doing it is sufficiently different to rule it out as "prior art".
--
Walter Dnes <waltdnes(_at_)waltdnes(_dot_)org>
Email users are divided into two classes;
1) Those who have effective spam-blocking
2) Those who wish they did
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