Hmm... virtual host patents?

[Alexei Kosut <ak...@nueva.pvt.k12.ca.us>]

This has little to do with Apache, but I was wandering around the web,
and came across this choice remark at <http://www.chicagometro.usweb.com>: 

  Because we know you are using a computer with a Mozilla/4.03 (Macintosh; U;
  PPC, Nav) browser, we built this site "on the fly" just for you
  using our patent pending VIRTUAL HOST! technology. Please ENTER OUR LOFT. We
  promise to make it a productive journey into maximizing the INTERNET
  for your company.

Maybe I should call them (1-888-8-THE-WEB) and ask a few questions,
like:

1. What the heck do they mean by "our patent pending VIRTUAL HOST!
   technology"?

2. How can they patent virtual host technology anyway, given that
   they're using a Netscape server. to do it. Shouldn't Netscape get
   something to say about that?

Or do they mean to say that they can patent a CGI script that tells me
what browser I'm using and call it a "virtual host"?

-- Alexei Kosut <ak...@nueva.pvt.k12.ca.us>

Re: Hmm... virtual host patents?

[Ben Laurie <be...@algroup.co.uk>]

Marc Slemko wrote:
> I think I would like to patent the idea of money.  Charge royalties for
> anyone who uses money, then charge royalties on the royalties they pay to
> me.  <g>  Guess I'm a (large number of) thousand years to late.

Ah, but if you call it "a token-based system for value transfer", then
it'll sail through :-)

Cheers,

Ben.

-- 
Ben Laurie            |Phone: +44 (181) 735 0686|Apache Group member
Freelance Consultant  |Fax:   +44 (181) 735 0689|http://www.apache.org
and Technical Director|Email: ben@algroup.co.uk |Apache-SSL author
A.L. Digital Ltd,     |http://www.algroup.co.uk/Apache-SSL
London, England.      |"Apache: TDG" http://www.ora.com/catalog/apache

Re: Hmm... virtual host patents?

[Marc Slemko <ma...@worldgate.com>]

http://www.chicagometro.usweb.com/techHTML/vh.html describes what it is.
Note that they don't claim patent pending on virtual hosts, just "VIRTUAL
HOST!".  That may be patentable, I wouldn't know.  Of course, their
wonderful features that they claim it can do is nothing that hasn't been
done thousands and thousands of times before.

OTOH, perhaps it is a "virtual patent".  <g>

OTTH, perhaps they don't have a clue that "patent pending" actually has
some meaning and isn't just words that people add to things to make them
look cool.  They may have nothing underway.  Or they may have it pending,
which doesn't necessarily mean it will happen.

I think I would like to patent the idea of money.  Charge royalties for
anyone who uses money, then charge royalties on the royalties they pay to
me.  <g>  Guess I'm a (large number of) thousand years to late.

On Thu, 6 Nov 1997, Alexei Kosut wrote:

> This has little to do with Apache, but I was wandering around the web,
> and came across this choice remark at <http://www.chicagometro.usweb.com>: 
> 
>   Because we know you are using a computer with a Mozilla/4.03 (Macintosh; U;
>   PPC, Nav) browser, we built this site "on the fly" just for you
>   using our patent pending VIRTUAL HOST! technology. Please ENTER OUR LOFT. We
>   promise to make it a productive journey into maximizing the INTERNET
>   for your company.
> 
> Maybe I should call them (1-888-8-THE-WEB) and ask a few questions,
> like:
> 
> 1. What the heck do they mean by "our patent pending VIRTUAL HOST!
>    technology"?
> 
> 2. How can they patent virtual host technology anyway, given that
>    they're using a Netscape server. to do it. Shouldn't Netscape get
>    something to say about that?
> 
> Or do they mean to say that they can patent a CGI script that tells me
> what browser I'm using and call it a "virtual host"?
> 
> -- Alexei Kosut <ak...@nueva.pvt.k12.ca.us>
>