[IP] Re: Boingo awarded patent for hotspot access

[David Farber <dave@farber.net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Tony Lauck <tlauck@madriver.com>
Date: June 24, 2009 11:38:54 AM EDT
To: dave@farber.net
Subject: Re: [IP] Re:    Boingo awarded patent for hotspot access

I don't pay much attention to news articles when the relevant facts  
are available on-line -- in this case in the U.S. patent database.

A *very cursory* examination of the 7,483,984 patent shows that the  
claims are fairly narrow. It would be fairly easy to design around  
them. (Narrow claims only pose a serious problem when they get written  
into standards that products are expected to follow. I don't believe  
this is the case here.)

Tony Lauck
https://www.aglauck.com


David Farber wrote:
> Begin forwarded message:
> From: "William Stucke" <William@zanet.co.za>
> Date: June 24, 2009 3:24:22 AM EDT
> To: <dave@farber.net>
> Subject: RE: [IP] Boingo awarded patent for hotspot access
> Hi David,
> > This patent highlights our commitment.
> Unless the patent is for something other than indicated in the  
> article, this
> patent rather highlights the stupidity of the US Patent Office,  
> which has
> issued patents for many other things that are by no means original
> inventions, including the children's swing, recently.
> Of the many things claimed in this patent, only interchanging data  
> between
> an access point database on the client device and on a central  
> server seems
> vaguely original.
> http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1 
>  &u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO 
> %2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=7,483,984.PN.&OS=PN/7,483 ,984&RS=PN/ 
> 7,483,984




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