zgb999 - 10:45 am on Apr 1, 2005 (gmt 0)

"it's also a smokescreen so that it gets harder to see what the patent is really about"
IMHO Claus is right again in saying so.

In a way it also is a nice way to make a wish list public and see what people all over the world think about the different ideas. Like that you get input for those things you really want to implement.

As the patent was filed on December 31, 2003 we certainly see a lot of things Google has been working on and is still working on.

As not all country domains can be paid for more than 1 year I would also asume this would be one of many signs for potential spammers (if implemented at all) and not a penalty as such.