Understanding RSS Patents And Meta Data

Danny Wirken

Understanding RSS Patents And Meta Data

There are some issues regarding patent applications of RSS and
different aspects of Meta Data and what its overall effects
would be. When companies are able to patent obvious technical
innovations and successfully prevent other companies from
moving forward, an unhealthy situation occurs. So how do
patents really work in the software industry?

Are Patents Important?

Some say that the US Patent System has become a murky swamp for
the tech industry where only corporations with deep pockets are
considered safe. The long standing resistance to patents is
based on the belief that it has become a barrier to innovation.
The idea that a small firm's freedom to innovate is curtailed by
the existence of so many patents in the software industry
persists. At least one research contradicts this premise that
large companies use claims of patent infringement to fend-off
smaller competitors. It further claims that small businesses
can actually use patents to their advantage even in an industry
that has seen an explosion of new patents in the past decades.

The experts' advice to small companies is to come up with a
patent strategy before starting operation. Research data would
show that there is a significant correlation between the
pursuit of patents and the future success of start-ups. It has
been found out that start-ups with patents are four times more
likely to go public than those without. Only half of this
number is expected to fail especially as they receive much more
in financing. The people that excel in this area are those that
recognize threats to their developed technology as a serious
problem. Those that do not bother to take steps for
intellectual property protection consistently fared worse.

Newly published patent applications can be searched at the US
Patent and Trademark Office. It can be done online by browsing
through industry category or by doing keyword search. The site
provides searches by keyword and lists of patents applications
by location, agent and law firm name, city of the agent and
inventor name.

RSS Patents and the Different Aspects of Meta Data

When Apple Computer filed for patents on some uses of RSS as
well as patents covering Meta Data management, it gave rise to
a prolonged and extended discussion about its probable effects.
One applied patent deals with variable length posts. A user can
modify how a feed is displayed, in what order and how it is
formatted in one embodiment. This also includes how much of a
particular content is to be displayed. Another embodiment
provides modification regarding how a displayed feed is stored
so that it can be used again at a later time.

There is also a filed patent that deals directly with
auto-discovery. Disclosure of technique for detecting, managing
and presenting syndication XML feeds is done. An embodiment
allows a web browser to automatically determine when a web site
is publishing feeds and notifies the user for easy access. One
other embodiment facilitates browser capability to determine
whether a web page or feed is advertising relationship XML
while displaying information about the people identified with
such.

A series of Apple related patent applications include one that
makes some broad claims for a web browser user interface that
enables a user to switch between displaying a file and
displaying a feed related to the file. There are also
applications that make claims on managing Meta Data and
indices. These claims are considered incredibly broad as one
application basically claim that Apple owns the ability to
aggregate Meta Data from two or more programs for searching.

There is a fear that if such application with a very broad
coverage is approved, it could effectively lock out all
newcomers from the field. It could easily impact other player's
ability to implement its search techniques as well. Whether or
not such a scenario is possible, one thing remains clear: users
will not appreciate anything that gets in the way of improving
the feed-reading experience.

An abstract of a patent application for methods and systems for
managing data such as Meta Data appears this way. In one method,
Meta Data from files created by several different software
applications are captured which is then searched. The type of
information in Meta Data from one type of file differs from the
type of information in Meta Data for another type of file. Other
methods are described as well as data processing systems and
machine-readable media.

A patent application for the methods and apparatuses for
processing Meta Data is as follows: One embodiment provides
that when a file having Meta Data is received, the Meta Data or
at least a portion of the content of the file is extracted from
the file to generate a first set of Meta Data. An analysis is
performed on the extracted Meta Data and the content to be able
to generate a second set of Meta Data. This may include Meta
Data in addition to the first set. The second set may then be
stored in a database suitable to be searched for identification
or location of the file. Other methods and applications are
likewise described.

For methods and systems for managing an index database, the
patent application is as follows: An index database is stored
on a machine readable volume with an operating system and the
files which have been indexed. After storing, the volume is
made available for distribution to licensees or customers. The
volume will include a previously created index database which
allows the user to begin use of the index database without
having to perform an indexing operation.

Another patent application for systems and methods for managing
Meta Data provides that a search through the Meta Data database
is performed. This is done when a selection of at least one
file having Meta Data stored in a Meta Data database is
received and a selection of a command to search using at least
a portion of the Meta Data is also received. This particular
application likewise describes other methods, data processing
systems and machine readable media.

It would be very interesting to see if claims such as those
mentioned above will survive. The approval of patent
applications largely depends on the claim having precedence
over the practices of others. Non-obviousness is another
consideration which can be used as a main argument against most
patent applications.

About The Author: http://www.theinternetone.net