Re: [VANILLA-LIST:3019] technical question

[Dave Ahn <ahn@vec.wfubmc.edu>]

On Wed, Mar 22, 2000 at 11:35:36AM -0800, Trent Piepho wrote:
> 
> What do you mean by, "I DON'T SEE IT"?  When small pieces of data are
> transmitted by TCP, they are usually aggregated into larger packets, to make
> more efficient use of the network.

This attorney is probably not a TCP/IP guru.  Besides, the body of the patent
indicates that the claims do not emcompass the lowest protocol layer.  They
are specifically laying claims to high level aggregate messages sent over
a high level protocol at the application level.  Although the claims are
the most important, the body of the patent is used to substantiate the
breadth of the claims.  If someone takes your patented idea and builds
something else that is sufficiently original and beyond the scope of your
idea, the second person can patent the derived idea as long as they reference
yours.  For this reason, the NAGLE algorithm (and probably hundreds of
patents on networking algorithms) do not apply here.  And neither do most
of the other good examples you gave about postal mail, newspapers and
other print journals.

-- 
Dave Ahn <ahn@vec.wfubmc.edu>        |  "When you were born, you cried and the
                                     |  world rejoiced.  Try to live your life
Virtual Endoscopy Center             |  so that when you die, you will rejoice
Wake Forest Univ. School of Medicine |  and the world will cry."  -1/2 jj^2