Popup ads patented.

[Brett_Tabke]

Exitexchange has received a patent on popup based advertising.

[story.news.yahoo.com...]

It's cool for surfers (fewer popups), but tough on advertisers since they will probably have to pay royalties on the ads.

[hurlimann]

Like BT has on hyperlinks;)

[defanjos]

Wow, totally ridiculous.

I'd like to see them try to keep track of all the patent infringements.

[mediaspinner]

Sounds like a good opportunity for a few lawyers to get richer, the patent holders to get obsessed, and an excellent panic factor for bigger online advertisers.

I personally hope they have deep pockets... deep enough to enforce it so that I never see another <presnipped webcam company that advertises everywhere> ad again. One can hope :)

[papabaer]

I suspect there will be a mad rush to discredit the patent. I wonder how it will hold up? It WOULD be very nice to see less popups and pop-unders... but then, I use Opera anyway.

[tbear]

I'll vote for upholding the patent........
:)

LOL

[skibum]

It's a really stupid patent to grant, [who do they pay off to get things like this through?] but it would be nice to see the number of popups decrease.

[JeremyL]

Doesn't the holder of a patent have to show they were the first to use the idea? I bet allot of adult webmasters were way ahead of exitexchange. But if EX can hold up the patent though were talking about a butt load of money from royalties from places like Double Click and the rest.

[Dpeper]

It will be years before we see the effects of this patent on the volume of pop-unders and thats if it holds up...

And remeber folks this isnt reffering to Pop ups just merely pop unders There is a diffrence.

[EliteWeb]

Someone help me develop UpUp-advertising, where advertisement comes up and Up :) or sideways ads (:

[Jill]

I know that many websites were using pop up ads way before 2000. I know we used one in 1998. I'm not sure I understand this wholey. Are they claiming a patent on a certain type of script for pop ups or just pop ups in general?

[littleman]

And I thought the one-click-buy patent was ridiculous!

Netscape GPLed the javascript interpreter back in 1999. An ignorant judge is a dangerous thing.

[Xoc]

Sounds like a perfect application for the [url="http://www.archive.org/"]way-back machine[/url]. Prove that some other site had the javascript for the pop-under and the patent application goes down in flames.

[edited by: Xoc at 12:53 am (utc) on June 4, 2002]

[Dpeper]

Thats a very good thought and a great place to start a search... I bet some buddy like DoubleClick or yahoo or NYTIMES would pay a pretty pennie for information that helps kill the patent.

-Donny

[msgraph]

Ok, I'm off to go patent the disabling of the back button for the purpose of keeping users from returning to the site they visited mine from. :)

Then I'm going to go patent the disabling of the scrollbar so that surfers cannot scroll to the right of my sub-pages.

[tedster]

I love this. The Yahoo article begins:

Pop-under advertisements, the oft-annoying windows that spring up after a requested Web page...

But what happens while you're reading that? You get a pop-under!

[Ed_Gibbon]

This patent, "US5443036: Method of exercising a cat" describes a laser pointer cat toy device:

"A method for inducing cats to exercise consists of directing a beam of invisible light produced by a hand-held laser apparatus onto the floor or wall or other opaque surface in the vicinity of the cat, then moving the laser so as to cause the bright pattern of light to move in an irregular way fascinating to cats, and to any other animal with a chase instinct."
(see: [delphion.com...] )

During the Amazon one-click patent controversy it was cited as proof that a person can get a patent for anything . See the latest on that (the Amazon one-click patent, not the cat toy), here:

[noamazon.com...]

[brotherhood of LAN]

If they can patent the genes in my own body, who is to stop people patenting pop ups? :) IMO, this is good news.

The 3rd-party ad server I was with has yet to pay up, went suspiciously quiet and I hope they go under :) Pop up ads are an invention (an annoying one), and their value will dive anyway IMO

Very grey area. So I take it the "open link in new window" option is now illegal? :)

[przero]

I actually hope that they get the patent and that the big advertisers refuse to pay the royalties and so the whole practice will just DIE.

[richlowe]

The company that I work for just got hit with a $1 million bill for using bar codes. It turns out that someone in the 50's patented the concept, and his heirs are getting rich from a whole lot of companies. They are now going after everyone and, guess what, they are winning.

Richard Lowe

[Grumpus]

Seems to me that Netscape (or Mozilla, probably) would own the patent to Pop-Ups since it was they who added the functionality to javascript in the first place, no?

G.

[EliteWeb]

Thats like saying the computer company owns it because they made the computer you were able to program it on. The fact is the person who developed the actual program/script to function it in the manner we all see has the intelectual rights to it. What I don't like is how long people wait to say, hey its my idea now because there are 2139 million people using i want a penny from each of you every time you use it. I dont remember seeing (patent pending statements w/ the java ;) )

[ideavirus]

One of the merits, if MX really manages to get the patent..is that number of POP Unders on the web will come down...But the downside could be, other will start claiming similiar such patents...which are otherwise ridiculous !

EliteWeb : regarding the UpUp and sideways ads..I have seen a couple of them on washtech.com some time back...i am sure, many here also might have noticed...!

:)

[AbeFroman]

I have a documented example of a pop-under ad used in Nov. of 1999.

[ggrot]

Thats like saying the computer company owns it because they made the computer you were able to program it on. The fact is the person who developed the actual program/script to function it in the manner we all see has the intelectual rights to it. What I don't like is how long people wait to say, hey its my idea now because there are 2139 million people using i want a penny from each of you every time you use it. I dont remember seeing (patent pending statements w/ the java )

So, I could go patent other single lines of code? Such as an alert box or perhaps using a title tag.

[brotherhood of LAN]

ggrot, from what i see, its more the "method of delivery" as opposed to the code used. This is the only way I can see the patent working

[Stickymaster]

This is mad!!

What next - trademarking the TM symbol?

Will this mean a monopoly on pop-ups?

Will this mean less ads? << Heres hoping.

Stickymaster

[HoMeR]

i would like to see the patent holding in the US, I dont think anyone is taking this serious in Europe ?

[muesli]

as brett's yahoo-url has expired, here's the permanent one:
[biz.yahoo.com...]