Hi--
I hope this isn't too terribly off-topic.
Both Endeca and Siderean have been awarded patents on aspects of faceted
navigation.
Endeca's is U.S. Patent No. 7,035,864
<http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=7,035,864.PN.&OS=PN/7,035,864&RS=PN/7,035,864>
Siderean's is U.S. Patent No. 7,146,362
<http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?u=%2Fnetahtml%2Fsrchnum.htm&Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&r=1&l=50&f=G&d=PALL&s1=7146362.PN.&OS=PN/7146362&RS=PN/7146362>
I'm wondering if someone with an understanding of legal language and the
patent process than provide insight on what impact this might have on
next-generation discovery systems that provide faceted navigation. Also,
does anyone know what they plan to do with these patents?
My very stab in the dark--after attempting to read these several times
and having my eyes glaze early and often--is that the patents do seem
broad. But I can't imagine the market for faceted navigation software is
terribly large and I wouldn't expect anything more than these vendors
trying to bop each other on the head. And that it's prohibitively
expensive for either of them to try to enforce their patents on any open
source discovery systems that the library community that do this
(Evergreen, Koha, Solr Flare, etc.)
--SET
Received on Wed Jan 31 2007 - 00:37:48 EST