patents

The US Patent and Trademark Office is swamped, so they're going the Digg.com route. Embarking on a patent review pilot project that will allow the online public to comment on patent applications, the USPTO is hoping the experts of the world will share the load. The USPTO is not, however, that keen on P2P.

Microsoft has filed two separate patent applications, seeking to gain exclusive rights to technology used to obtain, organize, and read news feeds distributed via Real Simple Syndication (RSS).

Google has added two more links to its expanding "More" box that pops out of its search engine tabs.

The US Patent and Trademark Office awarded Google a curious patent on Tuesday, filed for in 2000. The patent covers a "system and method for supporting editorial opinion in the ranking of search results." Observers are still uncertain if the patent is merely an "artifact" or a signal for a new direction in Google News.

In the who-has-the-most-search-patent-applications competition, Google has won the latest round, with Yahoo coming in second. (There is, of course, no such contest, but it makes things more interesting to pit the companies against each other.)

There were quite a few patent applications filed this week. Some of them were rather mundane; others looked more interesting. In terms of sheer volume, Yahoo led the way with five, while Google requested four. Go Daddy, Ask.com, and Xerox tied for last with one application each.

Things just go from bad to worse for Vonage. On top of a tanked initial public offering (IPO) and a class action shareholder lawsuit, Verizon has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against the voice-over-internet protocol (VoIP) company in a Virginia federal court.

In the latest round of search patents, Microsoft came out ahead - the software company was granted four. IBM and Yahoo snagged two patents each, and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office saw fit to allow Google one new patent.