It's one thing to lead a war against spam, as WebTV founder Phil Goldman has said he wants to do by way of his Mailblocks program, but it's something else again to wage war against his own fellow spam-fighters, according to the San Jose Mercury News.
Does this sound familiar? Goldman, the Mercury News said, bought a patent last year that he claims gives Mailblocks an exclusive right to so-called challenge/response anti-spam technology, and he's suing three of his fellow spam fighters over the patent.
The former Microsoft and Apple software developer, who hit platinum when he sold his then-unprofitable WebTV to Microsoft for almost half a billion dollars, thought of challenge/response development a year ago when he began Mailblocks. But when he discovered others doing likewise, Goldman - who has written 19 patents in his own right with 30 more pending, according to the Mercury News - sought, found, and bought what he thought was the most important challenge/response patent, before buying the lesser patent and its author (who now works for Mailblocks).
Then, the paper continued, Goldman sent a round of "non-threatening" letters to various companies that were using challenge/response anti-spam technology before striking, in January, with litigation against the owner-makers of ChoiceMail, Matador, and Spam Arrest without warning the three companies first.
