Wireless

Wireless

by Mike Masnick




Wireless Management Of A Computer System: Patented

from the our-wonderful-patent-system dept

The patent system is just getting out of control. The latest is that a company named Expand Beyond has patented a system for wireless monitoring and management of computer systems. The patent (6,772,169) sounds incredibly broad, covering any systems where someone is using a portable device with a wireless connection to monitor computer systems. Why is this patentable? The big difference here is the "wireless" aspect -- which isn't a new technology. All they're doing is taking something that existed over a wired network before and making it wireless. To say that's "non-obvious" (as a patent must be) is a joke.

3 Comments | Leave a Comment..

 
 

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  1. Sep 3rd, 2004 @ 12:04pm

    Not new

    by Oliver Wendell Jones

    Didn't a whole bunch of people/companies/etc. rush out to file patents that consisted of "any random process or procedure" + "on the internet"?

    Now they're just replacing "on the internet" with "over a wireless connection"...

    Anyone got a guess when these kind of patents will eventually get thrown out?

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  2. Sep 6th, 2004 @ 6:36am

    No Subject Given

    by carlos granier

    Aren't TV remote controls "wireless management systems"? And those have been around long enough.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  3. Sep 8th, 2004 @ 1:01pm

    The last gasp of a desperate company

    by speedy

    Expand Beyond is rapidly running out of cash in a market where their product can't hold its own against better constructed competing products. Since they have taken in and burned through $15 million in venture capital, they are probably holding this out to the VC community as a way to try to recover some of the money they blew.

    It is a sad...

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

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