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22 Supporters

Created by Sean Gates on March 14, 2006, 8:35 pm

As a concerned citizen I am writing in response to the patent issued to Balthaser Online (7,000,180) by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. I am DEEPLY disturbed by this all-inclusive patent that would stifle innovation and render many of the most useful websites on the Internet inoperable.

Here are just SOME of the reasons for the reversal:

1. The patent is much too broad, because my view of what a rich-media application is could be vastly different from Balthaser Online.

2. Many of my applications could be considered rich-media, as well as millions of others.

3. The cost of changing applications to not use rich-media would be devastating to the web development community.

4. The economy now depends on large commercial and consumer websites (Amazon, eBay, Google, Yahoo!, Wal-Mart, etc.) and forcing them to change or pay out royalties would collapse an already fragile economy.

5. The technologies used in creating rich-media applications DID NOT ORIGINATE WITH BALTHASER! They didn't even create the software used to run their own website or the websites of their clients!

I urge whomever is responsible to quickly reverse this patent.

Thank you,

Sean Gates
      


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Petition Signatures


22 31 Jul 2007 - 3:00    Rob Napier : This is a blatant mis-use of the patent process. Personally, I would like to see software patents banned as it creates uncertainty for all software developers.
21 6 Jun 2007 - 2:55    Scott Hasbrouck :
20 17 Aug 2006 - 15:07    Dave Williamson :
19 14 Jul 2006 - 13:45    Roger King : Stop this GIVE any Patent to ANY tom **** and harry
18 21 Jun 2006 - 14:44    Paul Langan : Why oh Why was this patent granted in the first place. Surely it's the patenting process that is at fault here. Any looney can apply for a patent, you've got to rely on the patents office to determine whether they're crazy or not
17 16 Jun 2006 - 19:11    David Edwards : the U.S. patent system is SO broken lately...
16 26 May 2006 - 3:00    Steve Bartlett :
15 23 Apr 2006 - 23:05    Theo Roebbers : I support this petition.
14 16 Apr 2006 - 15:23    Alexander Sherstnev : I support this petition.
13 8 Apr 2006 - 1:09    ass : These petitions are useless especially if the webmaster is making money off the ads. Why not build a Petitions RIA?
12 6 Apr 2006 - 6:20    Kevin Atiyeh : I support this petition. Hey, tommorow I'm gonna patent bottled water!
11 6 Apr 2006 - 2:34    Alex Boyer : I support this petition.
10 2 Apr 2006 - 15:35    Lance Boyko : I support this petition.
9 28 Mar 2006 - 7:28    mike gutierrez : I support this petition.
8 25 Mar 2006 - 21:38    Laurent Bachelier : I support this petition.
7 25 Mar 2006 - 0:45    Paul Jones : I support this petition.
6 21 Mar 2006 - 16:46    pramod : It seems patent approving team didn't know much about rich media !! Macromedia can patent it NOT Balthesar !!
5 18 Mar 2006 - 22:16    Balinder Walia : I support this petition as this is outrageous and to be very frank we were creating internet rich applications years ago and there was no doubt it will not evolve. Any body involved in development of real and dynamic internet applications had already invented this technology one way or the other.
4 15 Mar 2006 - 5:20    Matthew Sweet : I support this petition.
3 15 Mar 2006 - 3:27    ben mckinley : I support this petition.
2 15 Mar 2006 - 3:01    G. Kush : On the face of it, the issuance of this patent seems ridiculous. Rich content was inevitable in the evolution of the web.
1 15 Mar 2006 - 2:35    Franz Maruna : You shouldn't patent something so general, and something so many other people contribute to, and moreover some thing you were paid as an employee to provide strategy.. that makes this truly unethical.
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