Aral Balkan

The German software maker Magix is gearing up to file a patent reexamination of the Balthaser Rich Internet Applications patent. They contacted me this week to ask for the Flash community's help in assembling prior art.

Here's what they say:

We have recently become aware of Neil Balthaser's claims on the basis of US patent 7,000,180. We have also followed - and much appreciated! - the numerous reactions his patent registration prompted in the Flash community - your postings in a most prominent position; sentiment we fully share.

Being potentially concerned by Balthaser's claims ourselves, we are currently preparing a request for reexamination before the USPTO with the intent of disarming the patent to a most complete extent. In this regard we are approaching people who have been involved with RIA development and could potentially be contributing to a prior art list by sharing some of their knowledge. Our current prior art documentation incudes applications such as Worldo, Casper, Moonfruit, Macromedia Generator; it is still in the processus of completion. It is in this respect that we are asking whether you have any advice on the subject, including knowledge of prior art software/patents in order to make the reexam as successfull as possible. We appreciate all types of comment and information you might have with concern to the patentability shortcomings of Balthaser's alleged invention.

It is, we believe, in the interest of the entire programming community to resist the pressure imposed by a patenting practise such as the one used by Balthaser and tolerated, if not encouraged by the PTO. We are nonetheless confident that in this case a regular reexamination could reverse patent rights which do no service to either competition or innovation.

What can you do? If you have any information on prior art or can help in any other way, please either leave a comment here or add your knowledge to the Balthaser Prior Art Discovery page on OSFlash or contact Magix directly.

Together, we can overturn this silly patent.

Comments

• Hi Timbo, IMHO, all software patents are silly but, unfortunately, they are also a fact of life (at least in the US at the moment.) Even worse, they're trying to get them passed here in the EU but we are fighting them. Hopefully, we will learn from the mistakes of the US instead of copying those mistakes (which seems to be the current policy in other areas.) Although these patent laws are silly, if you look into the very real laws humans have passed in the past, you'll find that we have a rich history of passing silly laws with very real effects. As you mention, it is thus very important for us to rally behind this effort to call for a reexamination of the patent.

  by aral on 2006-08-18 09:16:40

• Adobe really should sue this guy. He was at MM working on the technology with them, AKA Generator, then left and tried to steal the idea via sneaky legal matters. Isnt that illegal?

  by mr hey on 2006-08-17 12:02:15

• This is one of those silly patent applications that make you shake your head and think that it's not going anywhere - that sanity will prevail. But then I go to my favorite websites and see ridiculous grey boxes around all the sweet flash content with a 'click to activate' prompt...thanks to another frivolous patent application (Eolas). This kind of thing does have an impact on us hardworking Flashers. If you know of some examples of prior work, do submit them. -t.

  by Timbo on 2006-08-17 18:01:03

• HI Aral, As you may or may not know, I worked at moonfruit.com back in the day, and could speak to some of the senior people there as regards the prior art side of things. Let me know if you want any info.

  by Alias on 2006-08-18 13:17:55

• [...] As Mike over at Flashgen.com and also Aral Balkan reports it seems someone is looking to contest the ridiculous Balthaser RIA patent that was reported a while ago by a number of Flash developers. I have also been contacted by Oliver Lorenz with regard to providing more information and certainly urge anyone that wants to beable to continue RIA development without the potential of infringing on this patent. [...]

  by BitTubeBlog » Blog Archive » Balthaser patent .180 reexamination on 2006-08-18 13:29:47

• In 1999/2000 we were advertising and implementing a online RIA at Haunted America.com. The product was websites for haunted houses that they would be created online. These sites included a animated commercial also created on line. Ads appeared for this product in Haunted Attraction Magizine as well as at several trade show. Lack of interest and time deadlines force us to have our in house staff use it. But the software worked and used the concepts of the patent in question. I have been working on improving this approach. But that is another story. These kind of patents are why we need patent reform

  by Joe Jensen on 2006-08-18 15:51:04

• Hi Alias: It would be great if you could -- just to make sure that they're talking with the Magix folks. Joe: Have you added information on that project on the OSFlash prior art discovery page? I'm sure it would be very helpful. Thanks, guys! :)

  by aral on 2006-08-19 10:06:04

• Hello Joe, Interesting commentary - we weren't aware of the Haunted America application. If you have any time-marked documentation (flowcharts, etc.) or any other information on the RIA, I would be very interested; from what you write I believe it would make for a good piece of prior art. If you could drop me an email, I'd much appreciate. Thanks in advance!

  by Oliver LORENZ on 2006-08-23 17:26:28

• Well, I just cant get the notion behind all of it. is it just to make people suffer? anyways hope you get through it in a better way.

  by Mike on 2007-05-05 06:54:08

• Ray has now apparently sued a bunch of companies in Virginia. Any leads on invaliditating art before 2000.

  by David on 2008-11-06 03:19:38