Ars Technica reports that Microsoft is being sued by a company named PalTalk, which has two patents on a “Server-group messaging system for interactive applications”, original patent filings here and here. If you read through the patents, it becomes evident that they cover a hugely broad number of messaging systems, wether delayed or in real time.
The patents date back to 1998 and 2001, and I remember vividly using IRC during my university years (it was born late August 1988), and mailing lists even before that. Heck, remember BBSs over 1200bps modems? Well, these people at PalTalk seem to have patented just that. IRC and mailing lists. And by default, all other chat platforms that have come ever since – MSN, Yahoo, ICQ, Google, to name a few big ones, but miriads of smaller, targeted server-based chat mechanisms. Voice you say? I was using voice to talk to simulated ATC (yes, people actually acting as ‘virtual’ air traffic controlers, way cool!) while flying on a simulated airline in Microsoft Flight Simulator eons ago, when 800×600 was a decent resolution to run your games at.
Can anyone say ‘prior art’ and ‘patent trolls’? Further info on BusinessWire’s PalTalk press release.