Slashdot reported yesterday on a small Vancouver company that is claiming to have a viable patent on RSS and RDF, the system by which Internet sites describe and syndicate their content. I assumed that that it was just bluster, since the patent itself is so clearly bullshit — invalidating prior art has been published at least ten years ago, three years before these goons filed their notice-to-extort patent application. But it appears that I was wrong. These guys have hired a gang of sleazy IP bounty hunters who've already sent dunning letters to O'Reilly, Dave Winer and others. If these guys get their way, newsisfree, Meerkat, and other fantastically useful sites, services and tools will be killed by punitive licensing fees, and a vital, thriving Internet technology will die. Again, what a nice job the USPTO is doing in stimulating innovation.
(Thanks, Rael!)
