From: fredl@leland.Stanford.EDU (Frederic Michael Luskin) Newsgroups: comp.multimedia Subject: COMPTON Patent Reversed (details) Date: 27 Mar 1994 21:04:39 GMT Organization: Stanford University, CA 94305, USA ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND, U.S.A., 1994 MAR 25 (NB) -- Patent and Trademark Commissioner Bruce Lehman has reversed the Compton's NewMedia multimedia patent, rejecting all 41 claims. The November announcement by the Tribune subsidiary of its claims for royalties on any system that combined sound, images, and text stirred up a hornet's nest of protest in the computer industry. In August of 1992, Compton's was issued a patent number 5,241,671 for the "Multimedia search system using a plurality of entry path means which indicate inter relatedness of information." The patent essentially said Compton's invented multimedia, but the company waited until the computer trade show Comdex to announce the patent and a royalty payment schedule. The USPTO said strong reaction to the patent, in part, prompted the re-examination although the office declined to comment on other factors involved. At the forefront of the fight was the Interactive Multimedia Association (IMA), a trade group with 260 member companies. The patent office has come under sharp criticism for issuing "broad, non-technical patents" and the Compton's patent isn't the first. The office is also re-examining a similar patent granted to educational multimedia software developer Optical Data Corporation (ODC) of New Jersey for "Curriculum planning and publishing methods," which has also come under fire. Philip Dodds, executive director of the IMA said, "Commissioner Bruce Lehman and the USPTO are to be commended for taking this action. Their willingness to re-examine overly broad patents is certainly encouraging." As part of the re-examination process, the USPTO held public hearings in San Jose, California and Arlington, Virginia. Some concern was expressed by the IMA that multimedia publishers not present all their evidence at the hearings, as it would then not be admissible in court should some of the Compton's claims be upheld by the USPTO. However, that didn't happen as all 41 of Compton's claims were overturned. Most of the claims were rejected based on the submission of The Hypercard Handbook along with several previous patents as examples of prior art. "This is a real victory for developers and publishers of multimedia titles," Dodds asserted. As a preventative measure in issuing overly broad computer software patents, the IMA is recommending some steps be taken. The trade group said it would like to see better trained examiners in the section of the USPTO that reviews the software patent applications, an improved software prior art database available to examiners and the public, and pre-grant publication of patent applications to open the patent process up to public view. (Linda Rohrbough/19940325/Press Contact: Ruth Ford, United States Department of Commerce Patent and Trademark Office, tel 703-305- 8600, fax 703-305-8240; David Kaufer, Kaufer Miller Communications for the Interactive Multimedia Association, tel 206-450-9965, fax 206-450-9963; Ken Christie, Interactive Multimedia Association, 410-626-1380)