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back to article WHY are GoDaddy and Verisign stockpiling patents? Do I smell war?

A raft of patent applications has presaged a possible legal war in the rapidly expanding domain-name industry. This year alone, market-leading registrar GoDaddy has applied for no less than eight patents specific to the DNS world, covering everything from searching for a domain name to register, to recommending a specific …

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  1. Pen-y-gors

    A patent on a Method of Communicating Information in Physical Form

    1) a description of the information to be communicated is converted to a syllabic format.

    2) a series of 26 symbols ('letters') is used to encode the sound of each syllable.

    3) syllabic series are then combined into groups ('words') which are then combined on the basis of algorithms into a series of groups ('sentences').

    4) Plant material is then prepared by boiling, chemical treatment, and pressure into large flat sheets of 'paper'.

    5) The sequence of symbols created in step 3 is copied ('written') on to the 'paper' using a dark coloured liquid medium ('ink') and a pointed object designed to fit the human hand ('pen')

    That's it. Please send 10% of the selling price of every collection of 'papers' ('book') to be at the usual address.

    6 0 Reply
    1. Mark 85
      Reply Icon

      Re: A patent on a Method of Communicating Information in Physical Form

      I'm surprised. You missed an opportunity here: for every comment, the commentard will be assessed a license fee.

      Thank you. A bill for my services at finding this hidden revenue stream along with it's improvement shareholder value is on it's way.

      2 0 Reply
    2. Keith 21
      Reply Icon
      FAIL

      Re: A patent on a Method of Communicating Information in Physical Form

      Ce est OK, je vais communiquer en français qui a plus de 26 dérisoires vos symboles, et ne est donc pas couvert par votre brevet.

      1 0 Reply
  2. Crazy Operations Guy

    Why are they wasting the effort?

    The second they try to enforce it, it'll get knocked down due to Prior Art... Maybe they have some extra money in their budgets that they need to burn before the end of the year (If we don't spend it all this year, we can't ask for more next year)

    1 0 Reply
  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    > What is striking about the applications, and awarded patents, is that most of them cover what are already fairly common practices in the industry.

    Wait, what?

    Only in the US.

    2 0 Reply
  4. Graham Marsden
    WTF?

    "most of them cover what are already fairly common practices in the industry"

    So why were they...

    ... oh US Patent Office, enough said.

    3 0 Reply
  5. Harry the Bastard

    oh ffs

    humanity, we're doomed

    0 0 Reply
  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Way to go USA

    Patenting common custom and practice.

    1 0 Reply

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