Ok, not the whole internet… but a concept that encompasses basically every site on the web.
A patent has been granted to a relatively unknown California Web-design firm for an invention its creator says covers the design and creation of most rich-media applications used over the Internet. The patent holder, Balthaser Online Inc., says it could license nearly any rich-media Internet application across a broad range of devices and networks.
Potentially tens of thousands of businesses–not only software makers employing its business processes but companies offering rich-media on their Websites–could be subject to licensing fees when they use rich-media technology over the Internet.
This guy claims that he’s been working on this “idea” for “half a decade”. Someone didn’t do a very thorough prior art search. Macromedia Flash as been around for about ten years1. Java got its start in 19902. I’m pretty sure “half a decade” isn’t going to quite cut it. DHTML, AJAX’s precursor, has been around for quite a while too — probably since the late 90’s if memory serves.
I guess, depending on how “rich media” is defined… this could be a very broad reaching patent.
I’m not sure when it happened, exactly, but the USPTO has jumped the shark.
1 - Product History, Macromedia Flash, Wikipedia.
2 - Early History, Java programming langage, Wikipedia.
