AOL Time Warner is the new owner of a patent that could give it an edge in the wars for control over desktop instant messaging, as well as a number of emerging areas of communications.

Spokespeople from the three major IM networks declined to comment. Sources close to AOL, however, said that the media conglomerate is likely to seek some form of licensing revenue from its rivals instead of filing lawsuits outright -- but, the sources added, AOL is still considering its strategy with regard to the patents.

What really caught me eye was the following:

In any event, the ramifications appear wide-reaching in that the patent could cover not just desktop messaging, but also mobile networks -- an area in which the Big Three IM players are just beginning to dabble, through alliances with U.S. wireless carriers.

Seems to me that this isn't going to be happy time ahead...... could this be applied to the likes of IRC and Online Forums ? Anyone got any comments on the issue ?

Source: Instant Messaging Planet & Overclockers Australia

I dont like the idea of something so simple being patented. I mean its like the mail...

Theres so much of this stuff going on right now.

old.

here is the actual patent, if you wanna take a look-see.

I believe irc would qualify as prior art. But then again i am not a patent lawyer

time to ditch ICQ and switch to MSN ?

I ditched ICQ looonnng ago.

msn doesnt cripple my computers speed and does everything ICQ does sans ads and sans stupid extra s*** that gets in the way.

Plus its already owned by a massive corporation.

ICQ + AOL = homosexuality²

it's not old, the news only came out a couple of days ago

also i agree that IRC could potentially qualify as prior art, but it depends on what the patent covers, from the above link it appears to be a very specific patent and i'm guessing AOL was smart enough to add a discriminating point that differs it form IRC

/. posted this little titbit about termtalk one of many IM's system that predate AOL. http://www.platopeople.com/termtalk.html

It doesn't seem it matters who came up with the idea first, but who has the cash to claim it. f*** AOL and f*** these laws.

teen: it does because if you can provide evidence that a system predated theirs then the patent is voided

sif they won't just word it in a way that makes the original one look like it doesn't come under the idea of what an IM system is

FFS teen get a clue, you talk such crap. A patent covers the idea, if the idea is not originally yours, and can be proven then it won't hold and you lose the patent.
Here read FFS before you post on s*** you nothing about.
http://www.jabber.org/aol-patent/interpretation.php

well clearly AOL has the patent, it's widely known they weren't the original, so why don't you f***en explain that Proffesor Patent Fag?

And after reading that document it seems everything I've said is absolutely correct.

It doesn't seem it matters who came up with the idea first, but who has the cash to claim it. f*** AOL and f*** these laws

Not true.

sif they won't just word it in a way that makes the original one look like it doesn't come under the idea of what an IM system is

Also not true. As has just been proven with the recent court battles over the shopping cart patent, the patent was proven to cover a broad spectrum of the software market, thus couldn't be enforced, same will happen with IM.

well let's see what happens this time, i'm hoping AOL get reamed, but I'm still cynical and think their wads of cash will make things go in their favour

True wads of cash will help, but don't forget that this will also infringe on MS Messenger, and as we all know too well MS has deep pockets when it comes to the courtroom.

icq is only for old skool chaps. Like myself :)

teen the way patents work is pretty f***ed up in America, basically patent clerks (law talking guys) take the submitted patent claims and investigate them, however these people aren't trained in IT or any other speciality necessarily and what's worse they get payed for APPROVING patents not for investigating them, so it's in their interest to approve anything they get handed.

it's then up to the community to refute the patent using evidence of prior art

It took me about a year after its release to start using ICQ as everyone i knew online was still using IRC, write and chat (or was it talk??).. it was only when most people moved off unix systems on to win9x & SLIP/PPP that ICQ became useful.

AOL don't stand a chance with the amount of prior art around.

What would be interesting is seeing whoever invented IRC sueing AOL and Microsoft because it was actually IRC that came up with the idea of messaging on the net and ICQ, MSN etc are all infringing THEIR patent ;)

msn doesnt cripple my computers speed and does everything ICQ does sans ads and sans stupid extra s*** that gets in the way.

ICQ Lite?

"aol is not welcome on my desktop at any price"

i think that sums up my opinion

Heh, if it all goes to s***, IRC is still subjected to the GNU Licencing act... Just Like Linux, aint no one touching that!!!

IRC has been around for ages, and is still vastly used... I dont see an application that lets you run a ICQ or MSN server locally at a LAN :)

Hope not! Sadly, I use MSN Messenger, which constantly signs me out, thanx to the piss-poor bandwidth that Telstra supplies houses on pair-gain phone lines! MSN uses f*** all bandwidth, it's like one byte per letter!..

http://www.icq.com/images/products/litenew.gif <-- bloat ware

http://www.ausanime.com/meta/icq.jpg <-- ICQ