Some patent applications filed on 9-Jan-2003

I think that it is unlikely that people in general realize the breadth
of claims that are being made in patent applications today. To help folk
get a better idea of what is going on, I have included below a random
selection the 15 patent applications that were published by the USPTO on
9-Jan-2003 which contained the phrase "instant messaging". Note: There
are hundreds of other applications published on other days that also
refer to instant messaging and could cause trouble for Jabber and other
IM systems. But, the stuff below should give you some idea of what is
going on...=20

20030009463 XML based transaction detail records
Published: 9-Jan-2003, Filed: 15-Mar-2002 by Worldcom
	"1. A method for recording transactions in a telecommunications
network, the method comprising: creating an XML transaction detail file;
and storing at least one transaction detail record in the XML
transaction detail file in response to a telecommunications transaction,
the at least one transaction detail record including transaction data
corresponding to the telecommunications transaction."
	The detailed description: " the present invention is applicable
to any type of session that may be established including, but not
limited to, telephony, video, audio, *instant messaging*, and etc"
	My comment: A very general attempt to claim the idea of using
XML as the encoding format for transaction records. Many of the
dependent claims refer specifically to the SIP protocol. However, a
patent issue for this application could cause problems for Jabber if it
logs "transaction records" using XML. Not novel...

20030009530 Instant message presence protocol for facilitating
communication center activity
Published: 9-Jan-2003, Filed: 3-Sep-2002
The first independent claim is:
	"1. A software monitoring and reporting application for
reporting presence information of networked entities in real time,
comprising: a software agent for generating a presence information
model; a data store for storing presence information tuples; and a
monitor for detecting presence information updates and for synchronizing
the updates with information in the data store; characterized in that
any given one or more of the networked entities may singularly or in
plural spawn one or more agents whereupon the agents each spawn a
container that is populated with current targeted presence and state
information in most recent updated form."
	My comment: I can't figure out what it is about what these folk
are claiming that is novel or remarkable. The application claims that
"it has occurred to the inventors that there also exists an opportunity
for using such a presence protocol for managing the communication center
itself in terms of internal policy, and member-to-member communication
within the center whether agent-to-agent, machine-to-machine,
agent-to-machine, or machine-to-agent." They go on to say that IM can be
used to accomplish a variety of call-center functions as a replacement
for traditional telephony systems that maintained information concerning
system status, etc. But, the claims are very general and appear to be
describing a very general IM system as implemented in just about any
environment.

20030009523 System and method for securing privacy of chat participants=20
Published: 9-Jan-2003, Filed: 9-Jul-2001
The first independent claim is:
	"1. A method for providing privacy to a client accessing a chat
application on a chat server, comprising the steps of: transmitting a
request for the chat application from the client to a first proxy
server; transmitting the request for the chat application from the first
proxy server to a second proxy server; providing a unique ID to the
first proxy server from the second proxy server responsive to the
request; transmitting the request for the chat application and the
unique ID from the second proxy server to the chat server; transmitting
a response and the unique ID from the chat server to the second proxy
server responsive to the request; storing the response at the second
proxy server with the unique ID; and accessing the stored response from
the first proxy server by providing the unique ID."
	My comment: This seems to be an attempt to get a patent on the
idea of using an anonymizing intermediate server in chat or instant
messaging systems. Clearly, this is not novel...

20030009566 System and method for providing access and utilization of
context information=20
Published: 9-Jan-2003, Filed: 28-Dec-2001 by IBM
The first independent claim is:
	"1. A method for providing access to an electronic profile of a
first client to a second client comprising the steps of: creating a
network accessible electronic profile of the first client, wherein the
electronic profile is accessible by an active object, wherein the active
object is bound to the electronic profile; defining an access right of
the second client, wherein the access right determines a portion of the
electronic profile of available to the second client via the active
object; verifying an identity of the second client; and providing access
to the portion electronic profile to the second client via the active
object, wherein the active object is transferable."
	My comment: This application would appear to be attempting to
claim that process by which one might maintain "profile" or "contact"
information for email or instant messaging users in cases where people
are given rights to parts of the database of profiles or parts of
profiles. Thus, an instant messaging system that had profiles of users
and only allowed users to see other user's profiles if access rights had
been given by a profile's owner would infringe on any patent that
results from this application.=20

20030009595 System and method for compressing data using field-based
code word generation
Published: 9-Jan-2003, Filed: 9-Jul-2001
The first independent claim is:
	"1. A method for compressing a message comprising: identifying a
first field and a second field within said message; applying a first set
of code words to encode data in said first field; and applying a second
set of code words to encore data in said second field."
	My comment: The basic idea here is that email messages and
instant messages often contain redundant data which is identical to that
found in earlier messages. What is claimed here is a method for
identifying the redundant content and replacing it with a code word that
causes receivers to retrieve the redundant content from an earlier
message. This method would have general utility in systems that rely on
a sequence of messages being sent and where compression is important.
For instance, in a pubsub system in which one is sending a series of
updates for stock market information but where not all fields in the
message change on every publish, one might want to include the ability
to compress the parts of the message that are unchanged from previous
messages. Similar utility would be obtained from being able to compress
out redundant content such as automatically generated or inserted
"signatures", message headers which remain the same between messages,
etc. This sort of compression would be particularly useful when sending
data to wireless devices.

Note: If anyone has prior art on these patents, then there is a two
month window which extends from the date of publishing (not filing!)
during which you can submit that prior art to the PTO. Doing so may
prevent some or all of these applications being turned into patents.
Note: Prior art, in this case, *must be* either a prior patent or a
printed publication. To see the detailed rules for fighting these
applications see:
http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/pac/mpep/documents/0600_610.htm#sect610

For the patent applications mentioned in this email, I believe the
window for third-party prior art submission closes on March 8, 2003.

		bob wyman