Re: Patent pending: Network-based classified information systems

Renato Iannella <renato@dstc.edu.au> wrote:
> 
> Having read the patent application, my comment would be that the
> ideas in the proposal are what has been discussed and developed
> over the last few years. There are similar systems that index
> structured information in HTML files, and provide a search
> interface to the repository. There are also current tools for
> the creation of such structured information (metadata).
> 
> The comparision to other technologies (META, XML, VCard etc)
> is misleading. Its like saying 'a cat is no good at being a
> tiger since its not big enough' !
> 
> The description of Dublin Core is _very misleading_.
> Dublin Core (which been going now for over 3 years) is an
> initiative that provides (with real systems working) what this
> patent proposal describes - structured subject descriptions
> in HTML.
> 
> The proposal fails to include a description of RDF.
> RDF will (and has) provided all the markup features
> described in the proposal - royalty free.
> 
> Cheers... Renato
> _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
> Dr Renato Iannella              http://www.dstc.edu.au/renato/
> DSTC Pty Ltd                    phone://61.7/3365.4310
> Uni Qld, 4072, AUSTRALIA        fax://61.7/3365.4311
> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
> 7th International WWW Conference 14-18 Apr'98 http://www7.conf.au

Hi Renato,

Thanks for your comments. I think it would be greatly appreciated by
subscribers to this list and it could save a lot of unneccessary further
discussion if you would point to documents in the public domain which
anticipate my invention (< 1997/Feb/21). If what I am proposing
(structured classification, contact and geographic data in the BODY of
web pages) is not novel then that may be the end of the matter.

When writing a patent, the applicant should reveal the nearest prior art
known to the applicant and show how the applicants invention is
distinguishable from the known prior art. Unfortunately this forces one
to be dissmissive of other technology.

The Dublin Core does suggest that Subject may contain a "series of
keywords possibly taken from a controlled vocabulary as indicated by
the scheme attribute". For example:
   Subject (scheme=Dewey Decimal System)=004.251 Supercomputers...

The only technology (practical implementation) relating to this that I
have been able to discover in the public domain is using the META tag in
the HEAD of HTML documents as disclosed in:
   http://www.uic.edu/~cmsmcq/tech/metadata.syntax.html
   (1996)
Are you aware of any other disclosure?

In any event in my patent:
   "http://www.ozemail.com.au/~dudmills/CCGpatent.html"
I also disclose the use of industry, product and service classifications
which I think are more relevant to advertisers.

But if web developers would be more inclined to use subject
classifications in the BODY of an HTML document where the relationship
with content is much clearer, particularly to portions of a web page,
why not provide it for them?

I could not mention RDF in the description of the prior art in my patent
because it was published on 1997/Oct/02 which is after the filing date
of my provisional patent application 1997/Feb/21 and is therefore not
prior art.

Kind regards,
Dudley Mills,
30 Hutchison Crescent, Kambah, ACT 2902, Australia.
phone/fax: +61-2-6296-2639
email: dudmills@ozemail.com.au
web: http://www.ozemail.com.au/~dudmills/

Received on Saturday, 21 February 1998 08:32:26 UTC