Quoting the website, “You are required to have a License, as is your Internet Service provider, your Telco whose phones connected to the web and anybody else contributing to the use of the patent. All search engine portals and web sites that have search facilities and images will require separate Licenses.”

Heck even my parents, who contributed to my birth, may have to pay.

By the way, if anyone can look into these, there are two whitepapers listed below which predates his patents. Any thoughts?

Woodruff, Allison, Faulring, Andrew, Rosenholtz, Ruth, Morrsion, Julie and Pirolli, Peter (2001)
Using Thumbnails to Search the Web.
Human Factors in Computing Systems Conference March 31 - April 5, 2001, Seattle, Washington, USA. pp. 198-205.
http://portal.acm.org/ft_gatew.....N=56053351

Kopetzky T., Mühlhäuser M.
Visual preview for link traversal on the World Wide Web
Computer Networks: The International Journal of Computer and Telecommunications Networking 31(11-16): 1525-1532, 1999.
http://www8.org/w8-papers/4b-l.....isual.html

and .biz….
if they cant afford the .com then they cant afford the lawyers.

on a related note, I heard that Thailand is trying to patent having parties on full-moons.

remember if you have something worth patenting, get a GOOD FIRM THAT KNOWS WHAT THEY ARE DOING.

I file a bunch of patents - in golf, clamping, and fasteners, although have an investment in a web diversion http://www.anycircle.com which is why I read TC

Frankly that patent looks pretty damn useless !!!!

A patent that has a 1st claim that is THAT long and THAT specific as this one is seldom any good!

I call these patents “vanity patents” look good but mean nothing!

Here is the first claim

1. A method for locating a web-page using a distributed computing system comprising the steps of:

receiving a search request from an associated user;

searching a database containing selected data representative of information associated with web pages, wherein such data is in the form of data entries, wherein each entry is associated with at least one web page;

identifying selected entries contained in the database in accordance with the search request;

generating a search results list comprised of the selected entries, wherein each entry includes at least one of a hyperlink for the associated web page and visual content associated with such web page; and
displaying the search results, wherein the user is able to view the visual content associated with each entry without activating the hyperlink for the web page;
wherein the visual content includes at least one of a hyperlink, image, video, animation, mini-image of a web page, streaming video, logo of an organization associated with the web page, and trademark of an organization associated with the web page; and

wherein the visual content comprises a plurality of mini-images in the form of a conveyor belt slide show.

/sarcasm

They’re bullying the smaller fish in Singapore with invoices. It only takes 1 company to pay up to make all of this profitable.

http://i32.tinypic.com/2s7fgp1.gif
http://i30.tinypic.com/jtt3pt.gif

You gotta admire their sheer gall though.
[img]http://i30.tinypic.com/jtt3pt.gif[/img]

“wherein the visual content comprises a plurality of mini-images in the form of a conveyor belt slide show.”

Not sure who provides search results in a conveyor belt slide show fashion. And, for those who are not as familiar with patent law, every word of a specific claim (claim 1 in this example) must be demonstrated for there to be infringement.

As for the Singapore patent being broader, obviously that would only impact activity that is found to be occurring in Singapoer (and I’m not even sure how easily it is to enforce a patent in Singapore).

This patent actually might apply to an Alexa, Thumbshots or any service that displays website thumbnails along side search results. Considering in 2001, Google was just getting off the ground and Alta-Vista was the bomb, could be a legitimate patent.

1. A method for locating a web-page using a distributed computing system comprising the steps of:

receiving a search request from an associated user;

searching a database containing selected data representative of information associated with web pages, wherein such data is in the form of data entries, wherein each entry is associated with at least one web page;

identifying selected entries contained in the database in accordance with the search request;

generating a search results list comprised of the selected entries, wherein each entry includes at least one of a hyperlink for the associated web page and visual content associated with such web page; and
displaying the search results, wherein the user is able to view the visual content associated with each entry without activating the hyperlink for the web page;
wherein the visual content includes at least one of a hyperlink, image, video, animation, mini-image of a web page, streaming video, logo of an organization associated with the web page, and trademark of an organization associated with the web page; and

wherein the visual content comprises a plurality of mini-images in the form of a conveyor belt slide show.

/goes to a patent office