[Mimedefang] MD and all of its users appear to be in violation of a US Patent

[Paul Murphy]

Jon wrote:

> Just came across this:
> 	http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/55/36666.html
> 
> A US patent granted to Postini... effectively says that any system 
> which intercepts mail, filtering viruses and spam messages from the 
> inbox and then sends what's left to the intended recipient is using 
> Postini's intellectual property (IP)...

US Patent number 6,650,890 of September 2000.

For use of DNS to direct/redirect/intecept mail, see RFC1035, which introduced
MX records,  November 1987.

For filtering of mail, see http://www.procmail.org/procmail.HISTORY.html -
December 1990.

Both establish prior art, so Postini's patent is unlikely to stand up in court.
The words hell and snowball come to mind...  Kind of like when British Telecom
tried to claim the hyperlink as their invention.

Best Wishes,

Paul.
__________________________________________________
Paul Murphy
Head of Informatics
Ionix Pharmaceuticals Ltd
418 Science Park, Cambridge, CB4 0PA

Tel. 01223 433741
Fax. 01223 433788



_______________________________________________________________________
DISCLAIMER:
This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and 
intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to which they
are addressed.  If you have received this email in error please contact
the sender or the Ionix IT Helpdesk on +44 (0) 1223 433741
_______________________________________________________________________