Microsoft Loses Patent Lawsuit

One of the top news stories this week that got virtually no popular press involves the judgment against Microsoft by a small company with a big software patent.

University of California and Eolas Technologies, Inc. hold a patent which Microsoft, according to several judges, violated with its popular Internet Explorer Web browser.

Without going into painful technical detail, the patent involves the "ActiveX" technology enabling Web browsers to display both web pages and content such as streaming audio, Flash, QuickTime video and other "rich" or "dynamic" content.

Despite heated input by the Internet community to invalidate Eolas' patent because of its broad nature, Microsoft lost every appeal and effort to get the patent nullified.

Bottom line: Microsoft faced two choices. First, they could pay the patent owner and keep things moving along, business as usual (much the way Blackberry did recently when a judge found them guilty of patent infringement).

Second choice: Microsoft could avoid future licensing fees by changing their IE browser and removing the offending code.

Which do you think they chose? Ding-ding-ding!

You guessed it, Microsoft chose to avoid paying millions more by simply removing the offending code.

Unfortunately, that decision means a bit of trouble for a few million web designers who use Flash, streaming movies, and more.

Ultimately, the change to IE may force visitors to sites with rich content to click on an object to enable it before they can interact with it.

Not a huge deal. However, time will tell what ultimately happens and the actual impact on sites running rich content.

But before everyone starts screaming that "The sky is falling" and "our websites are broken," let me ask you a question.

Do you really think that companies like Macromedia (makers of Flash) and sites like Google Video will let a few changes in Internet Explorer put them out of business?

I don't think so!

If anything, this change will force companies to step up to the plate and discover ways to serve dynamic content that does not depend on ActiveX.

Sure, it will mean some pain for both content creators and users in the short term, but in the end I honestly believe that, through innovation, we will all end up with a better solution than what currently exists.

In other news today...

** Hollywood Goes Online **

Six major movie studios recently announced their intentions to start selling new-release movies via Internet download from the site MovieLink.com.

But before you jump for joy at watching "Brokeback Mountain" on your pc, understand a couple of facts.

You can't burn the movie to DVD, and the downloadable films carry a price tag of around $15-30, a price comparable or more than a physical DVD you can purchase at Wal-Mart.

As a rabid DVD consumer and enthusiastic computer user (with six in my home office alone), I can tell you right up front, there is no way in @#$%* I'll pay 20 bucks for a movie I can't "veg" out with in front of the TV.

Are they insane?

Until it gets to the point where you can download a new- release movie, burn it to DVD or put it on your iPod, downloadable flicks will remain, at best, a novelty.

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Your Personal Trademark

 

For novelist Tom Wolfe, it's a dazzling white suit, regardless of the weather or season.

For comedian George Burns, it was a cigar.

For basketball bad-boy Dennis Rodman, it's crazy hair.

For software developer Jackie Grubb, it's the color purple.

"It": a personal trademark that anchors your identity in the minds of your market.

"One day after I started my business a client introduced me by name and 'She is our computer consultant and her color is purple,'" says Grubb. "Soon afterwards, at business meetings, people began to chide me if I wasn't wearing purple.

"Since people were already associating me with the color, I renamed my business Plum Suite Solutions and commissioned a logo with a plum shape and color. Items in my wardrobe that were other colors had a session with purple dye so that my personal appearance and all my paper materials tie together."

Becoming memorable cuts the number of times people need to meet you before you become ensconced in their mental filing cabinet, and it increases the vividness of their recall.

Your trademark needn't be visual. It can be a particular combination of words that functions as a slogan. Reporter Tim Russert has trained his NBC compatriots -- and undoubtedly his TV audience -- to complete the trademark sentence for his show, "Remember, if it's Sunday... it's 'Meet the Press.'"

Other auditory trademarks might involve a particular kind of word, a tone of voice or a manner of speaking. During the last World Cup soccer championship, I loved hearing the way the Spanish sportscasters announced a goal, even though my Spanish comprehension is pretty terrible.

A motivational speaker I once ran across called himself "Tom Terrific" and told audiences that if anyone asked how he was and he didn't say, "Terrific!" he'd hand over $100. For someone who spoke on having a positive attitude, this verbal trademark made perfect sense. (He claimed that he'd had to pay up only a few times in many years.)

A kinesthetic personal trademark would stamp your identity in memory through a behavior or a gesture. I'm told that business guru Tom Peters is known for never standing still while on a speaking platform. Conductor Leonard Bernstein worked his way into the American consciousness through the vigor of his conducting and having to keep tossing his mane of hair out of his eyes. I understand he also carried a sharpened baton with him that he used to spear food instead of using a fork when eating in restaurants.

Don't take this identity-building tool to such an extreme that it undermines your credibility or sets you off as bizarre. For instance, in the business world and in politics, people take handshaking seriously. Developing an idiosyncratic physical greeting or abstaining from handshakes, as real estate mogul turned Presidential candidate Donald Trump did for supposed hygienic reasons, can mark you as eccentric in a bad sense. Otherwise, creating a personal trademark is smart, cost-effective marketing!

Marcia Yudkin is the author of the classic guide to comprehensive PR, "6 Steps to Free Publicity," now for sale in an updated edition at Amazon.com and in bookstores everywhere. She also spills the secrets on advanced tactics for today's publicity seekers in "Powerful, Painless Online Publicity," available from www.yudkin.com/powerpr.htm .

It Involves The In-ter-net...Dan Reinhold

This article may only be reproduced in its entirety, including the resource box and subscription information electronically or in print. A courtesy copy of yopur publication would be nice, too!

It Involves The In-ter-net...
By Dan Reinhold

There's a song by a group called the Bare Naked Ladies ( yes, I'm serious!) entitled “Never Do Anything". One line states, “I could make a mint, fill my pockets with more than lint, I'll give you a hint - it involves the Internet".

Never do anything. Involves the Internet.

Sound familiar?

When you're first exposed to the Internet, it's mindblowing and full of promises. Heck - if you're not “making money online" within five minutes of signing on, you must be some kind of vegetable. It's a big candy store, and everything looks sooooo good. If one program sounds really great, then a few dozen will make it happen even faster...right??

You're gonna do great big things, until...you don't. And you quit, with all those “Told ya sos" ringing in your ears.

What you don't know about the Internet when you first see it is that the things of real value have nothing to do with the endless stream of dazzling get-rich schemes and scams and financially fruitful flims and flams.

It's relationships.

That mouse at your fingertips can't help you succeed, friend. Wrong animal, although at least it's a mammal, too.

It can take a while and it can take some work. Finding good, real people online IS possible. That's the reason why WAHumor.com exists.

Did you really think a raving Inter-idiot like me could pull this off...alone???

Yeah, probably.

After lots of time, sweat ,tears, frustration, rage, doubt...and I do mean LOTS.

What else can you do?

Find a good place or two to talk to some good people.

We're making one right here at WAHumor.com...in our very own forum.

Now and in the future, you'll meet some amazing people at the WAHumor forum, many of whom helped me get here.

And you'll meet people like you with questions and concerns like yours - getting answers.

Ain't got no gurus here - it's just folks like me and you-hoo.

C'mon, let's go meet everybody...starting July 19.

WAHumor.com, the premier work at home humor website, officially launches on Saturday, August 2, 2003. The site pre-launches on July 19 when the forum goes live - be there for a special announcement you don't want to miss!
Subscribe today at www.WAHumor.com