> 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
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