what is the opinion here on the NTP/RIM problem ? (fwd)

[Peter]

Imho there was nothing that anybody could invent (let alone patent) in 1990 
that would cover any technology used in electronic messaging. At least the 
following precedents existed at the time (and were well known and in common 
use):

- military and civilian teletype (telex) machines coupled to wireless radio 
links, forming networks for the purpose of sending, receiving, archiving and 
forwarding of messages.

- BBS systems and data transmission systems widely used by military, law 
enforcement and radio amateurs, on all wavelengths, including sattelite based 
store/forward (Oscar ham radio sattelites among others). Same used both for 
online chatting, one to one or party mode, and store and forward, as well as 
for addressed messages. Same used to transfer images and other data (like 
software and sounds) coded into the protocol.

- handheld and man-portable terminals for these activities, used mainly by law 
enforcement and also to a lesser extent by amateurs (due to cost).

- most of the connections made as above were using packet switched data 
networks over the air.

- data compression was used widely (at the level possible with 8 bit cpus)

WHAT could one patent in 1990 that would not be covered by these precedents ?!

Peter


--
The Toronto Linux Users Group.      Meetings: http://tlug.ss.org
TLUG requests: Linux topics, No HTML, wrap text below 80 columns
How to UNSUBSCRIBE: http://tlug.ss.org/subscribe.shtml