US Patent Awarded for "Rich Internet Applications"

Well, this is fun news for everyone that has been building web applications (most web sites would actually fall under the scope of this patent) for the last .. oh, lets say .. the last decade. from this article at InformationWeek

All I can hope is that this gets sold to someone who actually cares about making the internet a better, more useful, experience for users and not someone who is looking to put a stranglehold on the entire show.

Conversely, can anyone get a patent for anything these days? It's as if the US patent clerks have never even used the internet if they feel that this patent application is fair and has merit for approval. Maybe I'll run out and try to patent driving. Not the cars people drive, but just the act of driving. Then I can sell the patent for the act of driving to a major car manufacturer and they can enforce a fee every time someone gets into a car, starts it and moves it. Sounds reasonable to me.

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