From majordomo-docs-owner Sun Jun 25 23:43:13 2000 Received: (majordom@localhost) by honor.greatcircle.com (8.8.5/Honor-Lists-980720-1) id XAA07249; Sun, 25 Jun 2000 23:25:42 -0700 (PDT) Received: by honor.greatcircle.com (Postfix, from userid 1013) id 7899017E8A; Sun, 25 Jun 2000 23:25:38 -0700 (PDT) Received: from reexchange.cooley.com (pebbles.cooley.com [204.253.195.194]) by honor.greatcircle.com (8.8.5/Honor-980202-1) with ESMTP id JAA22643; Wed, 21 Jun 2000 09:07:43 -0700 (PDT) Received: by reexchange.cooley.com with Internet Mail Service (5.5.2650.21) id ; Wed, 21 Jun 2000 12:10:50 -0400 Message-ID: <7FEDB62047F5D311ACA1009027403503080F9D@reexchange.cooley.com> From: "Chawla, Jay" To: "'majordomo-workers@greatcircle.com'" , "'majordomo-docs@greatcircle.com'" Subject: FW: using majordomo to invalidate patents Date: Wed, 21 Jun 2000 12:10:50 -0400 MIME-Version: 1.0 X-Mailer: Internet Mail Service (5.5.2650.21) Content-Type: text/plain Sender: majordomo-docs-owner@GreatCircle.COM Precedence: bulk > Dear Majordomo developers: > > I am trying to invalidate 2 patents filed on February 1, 1996 that claim > functionality that I believe existed in majordomo prior to February 1, > 1995. (Anything that does what a patent claims more than 1 year before > the filing date of the patent invalidates the patent.) > > Roughly speaking, these patents claim: > > o A group messaging server (GMS) that receives messages addressed to a > group and forwards those messages to all group members > o An ability for someone to create a messaging group by sending a message > to the GMS with the name of the new group > o An ability for someone to send a message to the GMS specifying a group, > and have the GMS add that person to the group > o An ability for someone to send a message to the GMS specifying a group, > and have the GMS delete that person from the group > o Every group has a name. To send a message to the group, a person sends > the message to the GMS with the name of the group > o The GMS can 'aggregate' messages -- that is, it can take a sequence of > messages to a group, glob them together and send the resulting big message > to the group > > Does majordomo (and message digests) do these things? It would not be > sufficient if the 'GMS' just told a sender who the group members are -- > the routing has to follow what's in the patent. I.e., the GMS must: > > 1. receive a message specifying a group > 2. forward that message to everyone in the group, possibly aggregating > the messages > > If majordomo did any (not necessarily all) of these things prior to > February 1, 1995, I would *very much* appreciate if you could point me to > any source code and other documentation with documented > publication/distribution dates prior to February 1995, that could be used > to prove it. > > I am aware of Brent Chapman's 1992 paper in LISA VI, but I need something > with more detail that documents the above described functionality from the > patents. I am also able to get the source code for Release 1.94.5 from > the web, but I believe that that release is too recent to be useful in > invalidating the patents. > > Thank you for any help you can give me! Also, if you have any questions, > do not hesitate to contact me via email or telephone. > > Regards, > > Jay Chawla > ___________________________________________________________________ > Jay Chawla, Patent Agent Cooley Godward LLP > > *Voice: 703-456-8141 One Freedom Square > > *Fax: 703-456-8100 Reston Town Center > > *E-Mail: jchawla@cooley.com 11951 Freedom Drive, Suite 1700 > http://www.cooley.com/reston/ Reston, VA 20190-5601 > This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and > may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized > review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the > intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy > all copies of the original message. >