SMI patent claim rejected
The U.S. Patent Office has sent a final rejection letter in the SMI patent claim case, raising big shouts of joy from everyone who does online registration (use 09809595 as the application number if you click through to see the actual notice). Back in 2002, Software Management Inc., a Pittsburgh-based meeting technology provider filed a patent application claiming the invention of 158 meeting-related online processes, and raised a bit of an uproar among online meeting services companies, meeting planners, and meeting industry associations. SMI also sent royalty invoices to 25 organizations that were potential violators of its patentable claims—I wonder how many paid up, anticipating a loss?
For more background on this issue, click here.
For MPI’s white paper on the original filing, click here.
Related Topics: Technology
December 14th, 2005 at 11:16 am
This is very good news for the industry. SMI was simply trying to profit from the good work of dozens of companies developing software AND the planners who used it. Mr. Franke tried to wrap himself in the flag to legitimize the piracy, and I’m glad the Patent Office saw through it as the rest of us did.
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