o_O microsoft gets patent on cookies?

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volka
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o_O microsoft gets patent on cookies?

Post by volka »

http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Pars ... /6,632,248
Is it just me or is this bizzare?
This is not a rant againt ms only but some patents of the last few years are really strange, aren't they?
Stoneguard
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Post by Stoneguard »

I _think_ their intent is to patent the concept of sessions, not cookies. I cannot really tell (only briefly looked at the document). But if they can patent the process, it may cause issues with other servers maintaining sessions, although I cannot see how they can patent every single potential method of achieving this state.

I know I was personally using cookies as early as 1997 to establish a session state without using any built-in server side sessions. It was very complex code I wrote in C++ at the time, but was a lot of fun to learn.
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volka
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Post by volka »

ah right, it's probably more pointed to this subject. But still bad enough. Hopefully this patent will not hold
wesnoel
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Post by wesnoel »

LOL!

If they do get that patent, Does that mean that we will have to pay everytime we start a session or just when we destroy session?

Or can we buy lic. that will let us use them but only on one computer?

Wes/
wesnoel
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Post by wesnoel »

Oh and one question:

Well All sessions come with IE?

Wes/
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volka
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Post by volka »

hm, the patent is granted.
it is pending since
Filed: December 6, 1996
qads
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Post by qads »

1996? lol..i guess they forgot about it :P
McGruff
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Post by McGruff »

Also, in 1999 MS was granted a patent for "the use stylesheets in electronic publishing systems" (Style Sheets for Publishing Systems, US patent #5,860,073). I don't think they plan to do anything with it though - or could make it stick if they tried.
fractalvibes
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Post by fractalvibes »

The notion of saving some semblance of sessio state goes back at least as far as IBM's CICS systems on big mainframes. It would be like getting a patent on the idea of a loop....

fv
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