Compton's NewMedia

[David Farber <farber () central cis upenn edu>]

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(c) 1994 Mark Voorhees                          February 24, 1994


PATENT OFFICE WILL REJECT MOST CLAIMS IN COMPTON'S PATENT


First office action will please multimedia industry,
which is worried about breadth of software patents




     The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office will reject most and
possibly all of the claims in the controversial Compton's
NewMedia patent, according to sources. The rejection will be the
first so called "office action" in the re-examination of the
patent.


     The patent, which is jointly owned by Tribune Co. and
Encyclopaedia Britannica, covers basic techniques for searching
and retrieving pictures, sounds, video, and text from CD-ROM
programs, such as multimedia enclopedias.


     Patent Commissioner Bruce Lehman decided to re-examine the
patent after the multimedia industry raised such a fuss late last
year. The industry is worried that the patent may form a
barricade in the evolution of the emerging multimedia and
interactive industries.


     The basis for the rejection will be that "prior
art"--articles, books, or other patents--disclosed the same
invention. It will likely be issued by the second week of March.


     The patent owners will have an opportunity to rebut the
rejection before the office issues a second office action, which
is generally final. Tribune Co. and Encyclopaedia Britannica, can
appeal the results of the re-exam to the Board of Patents and
Interferences or to federal court.


================================================================
For more information on this story, please await the February 25
issue of Information Law Alert: A Voorhees Report, which will
delivered in the next few days.
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