Wednesday, October 08, 2003

Peter O'Kelly's Reality Check

Via Peter O'Kelly's Reality Check: "'Microsoft has won a patent for an instant messaging feature that notifies users when the person they are communicating with is typing a message.
The patent encompasses a feature that's not only on Microsoft's IM products but also on those of its rivals America Online and Yahoo. The patent was granted on Tuesday.'"

SAD: Referring to the news summary of notifying "users when the person they are communicating with is typing a message," IBM Instant Messaging (formerly Sametime) had this feature when it shipped in December 1998. Beyond that, Lotus had prototype versions in development with this feature back in mid 97'. I don't know the prior art that exists within Microsoft but the filing of December 2002 indicates there was known prior art.