Simon Willison’s Weblog

This could be the most ludicrous tech patent yet

16th January 2004

Patent 6,671,714:

What is claimed is:

1. A method for assigning URL’s and e-mail addresses to members of a group comprising the steps of:

assigning each member of said group a URL of the form “name.subdomain.domain”; and

assigning each member of said group an e-mail address of the form “name@subdomain.domain;”

wherein the “name” portion of said URL and said e-mail address is the same and unique for each particular one of said members such that an only difference between said URL and said e-mail address for said member is that in said URL the “@” symbol of the e-mail address is replaced with a “.” and wherein said “subdomain” portion of said URL and said e-mail address is the same for all members of said group.

If that isn’t proof that the patent system is just fundamentally flawed I don’t know what is.