Multi-Channel Communication Patent Up for Sale

OTDR writes: More software patent assinity in the news as patent number 6,418,462, or “methods allowing clients to perform tasks through a sideband communication channel, in addition to the main communication channel between a client and server” snubs it’s nose at AJAX, ftp, and decades of prior art and goes on sale next month in San Fransisco. From the article, “Singled out are AJAX mashups including Google Maps and Gmail, and Microsoft "Live" — the latter being a broad and slightly nebulous category. Also in the frame are Amazon's S3 and EC2 and clusters from Microsoft, VMware and Oracle. eBay's Skype, Napster and Microsoft's Groove are also listed as potentially infringing on the patent in P2P.”

Gotta love the USPTO.