Patent Battles Are Good News For Spammers

from the well,-why-don't-we-just-patent-everything... dept

While we've already discussed how Microsoft has run into plenty of complaints about the patents they're trying to get for their email authentication scheme, Sender ID, the patents in question have finally been shown publicly -- and it's no wonder people were upset. The patents are extremely broad. Also, some are claiming that Microsoft basically took the work being done by the Anti-Spam Research Group on authentication, and brought it to the patent office. Of course, if that's the case, then there should be plenty of evidence of prior art -- but it's still a legal hassle that isn't necessary. All these patent battles really mean is that any solution to spam is a long way off. As anti-spammers battle over who owns what intellectual property, spammers don't really care at all about patents (even if AT&T owns the patent on how to spam).

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