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Can someone put in layman's terms the patent and how it was being applied in this case? They say in the article it was an "old cell phone patent being applied t

Can someone put in layman's terms the patent and how it was being applied in this case? They say in the article it was an "old cell phone patent being applied to the internet" but don't explain how/what. thx

meleva 13y ago
It doesn't look like anyone knew... "Alcatel-Lucent's corporate representative, at the heart of its massive licensing campaign, couldn't even name the technology or the patents it was suing Newegg over."
yew 13y ago
The patent (US #5649131, there's a link in the article) covers a general scheme for standardized communication between a server and client (the patent refers to 'host' and 'terminal'). Specifically, the server and client agree on a set of defined 'objects' (in this case including text boxes, drop-down menus, and images). The client then displays said objects to the user by following instructions from the server. The claimed innovation seems to be that the server and client talk about the aforementioned objects rather than sending exact descriptions of the client's display back and forth. Alcatel-Lucent intended to apply the patent very broadly - consider a web server as the 'host' and a web browser as the 'terminal', for example.
- jessaustin 13y ago
  So that's basically every interactive site ever? It certainly includes AJAX but it probably includes basic HTML over HTTP.
  - yew 13y ago
    More or less. NewEgg are calling it a patent on menus and they're not far off.
jere 13y ago
I'd say the patent, at least the beginning, is fairly readable. I don't see any way that it could be applied to suing any of these companies though... perhaps that's the point: http://www.google.com/patents/US5649131?dq=5649131&hl=en&sa=X&ei=02SUUa_iMuaLjALM8ICYCg&ved=0CDQQ6AEwAA http://www.google.com/patents/US5649131?dq=5649131&hl=en... From a quick read, it appears to be about a server keeping track of menus and clicks on those menus that happen on some client (e.g. smartphone?) app. That seems like absolute nonsense to me, but I may be getting tripped up by the use of the term "host computer."

meleva 13y ago

It doesn't look like anyone knew... "Alcatel-Lucent's corporate representative, at the heart of its massive licensing campaign, couldn't even name the technology or the patents it was suing Newegg over."

yew 13y ago

The patent (US #5649131, there's a link in the article) covers a general scheme for standardized communication between a server and client (the patent refers to 'host' and 'terminal'). Specifically, the server and client agree on a set of defined 'objects' (in this case including text boxes, drop-down menus, and images). The client then displays said objects to the user by following instructions from the server. The claimed innovation seems to be that the server and client talk about the aforementioned objects rather than sending exact descriptions of the client's display back and forth. Alcatel-Lucent intended to apply the patent very broadly - consider a web server as the 'host' and a web browser as the 'terminal', for example.

jessaustin 13y ago
So that's basically every interactive site ever? It certainly includes AJAX but it probably includes basic HTML over HTTP.
- yew 13y ago
  More or less. NewEgg are calling it a patent on menus and they're not far off.

jere 13y ago

I'd say the patent, at least the beginning, is fairly readable. I don't see any way that it could be applied to suing any of these companies though... perhaps that's the point: http://www.google.com/patents/US5649131?dq=5649131&hl=en&sa=X&ei=02SUUa_iMuaLjALM8ICYCg&ved=0CDQQ6AEwAA http://www.google.com/patents/US5649131?dq=5649131&hl=en... From a quick read, it appears to be about a server keeping track of menus and clicks on those menus that happen on some client (e.g. smartphone?) app. That seems like absolute nonsense to me, but I may be getting tripped up by the use of the term "host computer."