[Curiouser and Curiouser] Internet News: “New York-based ActiveBuddy has won a crucial patent covering instant messaging bot-making technology”

Personally, my favorite quote from the article: “I am fairly confident, there were no interactive agents on IM at that point when the application was filed (August 22, 2000). I’m certainly not aware of any,” said Kay, who doubles as ActiveBuddy’s chief technology officer.“

What a colossal load of crap.

Is it just me, or is this just getting downright absurd with software patents? Let’s quickly review: Amazon’s 1-Click, Forgent Networks’s claims on JPEG and even the now defunct claim from BT that it created Hyperlinks are just examples that companies are using patents as a business model rather than protection from property theft.

After doing some searching, I wasn’t terribly surprised to learn that Unified Data Technologies has previously said that it owns US Patent 5,684,985 (and PEARL agrees) for “the method and apparatus utilizing bond identifiers executed upon accessing of an endo-dynamic information node.” — otherwise known as RDF (and im sure would extend to RSS).

Since im fairly new to the blogging community, im sure this has already made the rounds, it just leaves me speechless.