[JDEV] MS Patents IM 'composing' feature

[Heiner Wolf]

Hi,

yes, it seems to apply to composing events, but it is broader. 
The patent has been filed December 20, 2002. With respect to existing
implementations this is really late, actually quite bold. 

The Jabber spec is JEP-0022: Message Events

Revision History:
Version 1.1 (2003-02-11) Attempted to clarify usage and business rules.
(psa) 
Version 1.1 (2003-01-26) Added more detailed information and clarified a
few points. (psa) 
Version 1.0 (2002-05-08) Changed status to Active. (psa) 
Version 0.2 (2002-03-13) Minor corrections and additions. (dja) 
Version 0.1 (2002-03-05) Initial draft. (dja) 

hw
--
Dr. Klaus H. Wolf
bluehands GmbH & Co.mmunication KG
http://www.bluehands.de/people/hw
+49 (0721) 16108 75

> -----Original Message-----
> From: jdev-admin at jabber.org [mailto:jdev-admin at jabber.org]On Behalf Of
> Nicholas Doyle
> Sent: Thursday, October 09, 2003 6:51 AM
> To: im-patents at jabber.org
> Cc: jdev at jabber.org
> Subject: [JDEV] MS Patents IM 'composing' feature
> 
> 
> Cross posting to JDEV since im-patents doesn't seem very active...
> 
> I saw this on Slashdot tonight.  Microsoft has received a 
> patent for a "System and method for activity monitoring and 
> reporting in a computer network", patent no. 6,631,412.
> 
> http://yro.slashdot.org/yro/03/10/08/135237.shtml?tid=109&tid=
> 155&tid=187&tid=189&tid=99
> 
> The article mentions Powwow (from Tribal Voice, back in 1996) 
> as maybe having been prior art.  The actual patent document 
> actually refutes programs like UNIX talk, because it shows 
> the conversation in 'real-time', and characters appear for 
> each user as they are typed.  The MS patent seems to be for a 
> mechanism to notify the user only that the other party is 
> responding (not showing the actual response until it is 
> 'sent'), and these 'user is typing' messages are turned 
> on/off based on a timer.  I have not actually read the entire 
> patent myself yet, just the abstract.
> 
> Here's a link to the patent:
> 
> http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HIT
> OFF&p=1&u=/netahtml/search-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=pt
> xt&s1=6,631,412&OS=6,631,412&RS=6,631,412
> 
> Did Powwow seem to use a timer to turn off the notification 
> (can't remember from when I used it briefly in '96)?  Does 
> anything in the Jabber/XMPP spec specify the use of 
> time-intervals for sending the composing/not composing 
> messages?  If not, then maybe just clients which actually use 
> timers would be infringing?
> 
> I tried (briefly) to hack this feature into Gabber 0.8 
> earlier this year, but got sidetracked.  I can't remember the 
> specifics of the spec now, through I remember the Jabber docs 
> being somewhat brief about this feature (and other 
> x:events?).  Though I remember seeing on Jdev recently there 
> is a new JEP for 'composing' now?  I believe this feature is 
> extremely useful in IM programs (hence, trying to add it to 
> Gabber, I know Gabber 2 already has it), almost necessary 
> really, to try and have a proper conversation without 
> constantly cutting each other off.  It would be a shame if 
> the IM community, and particularly Jabber/XMPP, lost the use 
> of such functionality because it is now MS's IP.
> 
> Nick
>