THE Internet Patent News Service regularly pokes fun at computer software
patents granted for ideas that are as old as the hills. Its Web site is
http://sunsite.unc.edu/patents/ipnsinfo.html. Gregory Aharonian, who runs
the service, also picks the worst patent of the year and has given this year鈥檚
award to Bill Gates and Microsoft.
Microsoft鈥檚 US Patent (5 552 982) claims a legal monopoly on a 鈥渕ethod and
system for processing fields in a document processor鈥�, which it calls 鈥減rint
merge鈥�. But Aharonian thinks Microsoft is claiming a patent for what is already
known as 鈥渕ail merge鈥�.
Aharonian acknowledges that there may be some new features. But he argues
that the legal claims filed by Microsoft are too broad and cover computer
software that was well known before Microsoft filed the patent in 1989. He also
accuses Microsoft of failing to alert the US Patent Office to the existence of
mail merge in older programs, such as WordPerfect. 鈥淚 find it suspicious that
Microsoft was unaware of these features of its competitors鈥� word processors,鈥�
says Aharonian. He is appealing for old software manuals that could prove
Microsoft鈥檚 patent is invalid. And if Microsoft鈥檚 competitors want to make a
donation, Aharonian will use it towards the $2500 that the US Patent
Office charges for re-examination.
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