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I might have worked on some prior art related to this. In 1993 I worked on a project for a "superfax" system for the NCSU library. It was basically a scanner ho
by robterrell 14y ago
I might have worked on some prior art related to this. In 1993 I worked on a project for a "superfax" system for the NCSU library. It was basically a scanner hooked up to a Mac that would send the resulting tiff files over FTP. It was a great learning experience (well... scsi scanners can blow me, tiff is nuts, the ftp protocol is way over-complicated, but I was doing real internet socket programming in 1993, for money!). It was certainly a one-click scan-and-send solution. Maybe we can get this fucker overturned. (If the email angle isn't essential, which now that I think about it, it probably is.)
- ScottBurson 14y agoThat might be close enough prior art to get the patent ruled obvious. I mean, it ought to have been discarded as obvious in any case, but maybe sticking this in the PTO's face would help. Do you have any evidence?
- wiml 14y agoNeXTmail had some very similar scan/fax/email integration, but it might not have been until a couple of years later than that --- I don't remember.
- ibisum 14y agoWANG had prior art even before that.
- vxNsr 14y agoYes, contact the author so he can put you in touch with the proper lawyers
- walshemj 14y agoI seem to recall that telecom gold (dialcom in the us) had an experimental email/fax gateway back in the 80's.
- smoyer 14y agoI was building distance learning systems in 1997 and 1998 that included the ability to send faxes across a TCP/IP network. There were two devices (already on the market) that allowed you to push the send button on the fax machine, and forward it another similarly configured fax machine. The intermediate format was to send a TIFF file to an e-mail server ... this sure sounds a lot like the patents being foisted upon small businesses today. Unfortunately I can't remember the name of either device, but I've got a picture of me hiking with my kids in one of these company's t-shirts. More to come!
- chickopozo 14y agoI bought a Canon scanner in 1996. It had a one click email button on it. I hooked my computer to the net so... does this mean I should really hold the patent?
- chickopozo 14y agoI think the software was called canoscan.
- juiceandjuice 14y agoPrior art for this predates the World Wide Web. The physics arxiv and SPIRES database were doing this in the 80s.