Microsoft Wins Key Instant Messaging Patent

A patent for an instant messaging feature that tells you when the person you communicate with is typing a message – a feature familiar to MSN, America Online, and Yahoo instant message users – has been awarded to Microsoft, a CNET reported October 7. 

The patent was awarded earlier that day and could, according to CNET, become a weapon in Microsoft's battle to get larger instant messaging share, given its plan to launch Live Communications Server – initially for the enterprise and then for voice calling and video services – later this year. 

Both MSN Messenger and Windows Messenger, the latter an instant messaging client for Windows XP, are used by millions now, but having their new patent can be a powerful tool only if proven in court that the owner has what CNET calls a "bulletproof claim" to the invention. Companies that might challenge the patent – as a number of adult Internet companies now challenge Acacia Media Technologies's claim to a series of streaming media patents Acacia calls Digital Media Technology – have to prove the patent owner wasn't the first on record with the invention. 

"This means," said Colorado intellectual property attorney Carl Oppedahl to CNET, "that if someone tries to invalidate the Microsoft patent, they would try to find examples of instant messaging that predated the filing date." 

ICQ, the popular instant messaging program purchased by AOL a few years ago, won a patent in late 2002 claiming rights as the inventor of online instant messaging. But AOL has never yet tried to use that as a wedge or weapon against other instant messaging programs. But the sudden rush to patent portions of instant messaging, CNET said, "underscores the application's popularity and potential."