[Sigia-l] Does this mean what I think it means?

[Lyle_Kantrovich at cargill.com]

The abstract does sound much like a description of HTTP 
request/response, but it isn't a good abstract.  If you read further it 
talks about forms and interactions (based on a quick scan).  It looks 
very specific to me.  I think you could still do expanding/collapsing 
forms and not violate the exact conditions of the patent.  (But, hey I'm 
not a patent attorney...)

<quote from 
http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=/netahtml/srchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=6,615,226.WKU.&OS=PN/6,615,226&RS=PN/6,615,226>

What is claimed is: 

1. A method for displaying a form at a client system, the method 
comprising: 
providing a document describing the form, the form having a plurality of 
sections, each section having descriptive information and a plurality of 
data entry fields; displaying the descriptive information for each 
section; in response to a user selecting descriptive information of a 
section, expanding that section by displaying the data entry fields 
associated with that section; and 
when the user indicates to collapse the expanded section, collapsing 
that section by removing the displayed data entry field and redisplaying 
the descriptive information for that section. 

2. The method of claim 1 wherein only one section is expanded at a time. 


3. The method of claim 1 wherein the user indicates to collapse an 
expanded section by selecting descriptive information of a section. 

4. The method of claim 1 wherein a server system provides a separate 
form for each section when expanded. 

5. The method of claim 1 wherein when the section is expanded the 
descriptive information of the other sections is displayed. 

6. A method in a client system for editing contents of a form, the form 
being implemented as an HTML document, the method comprising: 
displaying the contents of the form, the form having a plurality of 
fields; in response to receiving an indication to edit a field, 
receiving from a server system an HTML document containing a description 
of information to be entered into the field and containing an editable 
field; displaying the received HTML document; and upon completion of the 
editing of the field, redisplaying the contents of the form with the 
field containing the edited data. 

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the redisplaying includes receiving an 
additional HTML document. 

8. The method of claim 6 wherein a user indicates to edit a field by 
selecting the field. 

9. The method of claim 6 wherein a user indicates to edit a field by 
selecting a button near the field. 

10. A method in a computer system for editing fields comprising: 
displaying the content of the fields; receiving a selection of a field 
whose content is displayed; in response to receiving the selection, 
displaying an editing window in which the content of the selected field 
is edited; and after the content of the field is edited, removing the 
displayed editing window and displaying the selected field with the 
edited content. 

11. The method of claim 10 wherein the received selection is the 
selection of the displayed content of the field to be edited. 

12. The method of claim 10 wherein the received selection is the 
selecting of a button near the displayed content to be edited. 
</quote>

and it goes on for 38 points...

Regards,

Lyle

----
Lyle Kantrovich
User Experience Architect
Cargill 
http://www.cargill.com/

Croc O' Lyle - Personal Commentary on usability, information 
architecture and design.
http://crocolyle.blogspot.com/


-----Original Message-----
From: listera at rcn.com [mailto:listera at rcn.com]
Sent: Wednesday, September 03, 2003 5:08 PM
To: sigia-l at mail.asis.org
Subject: Re: [Sigia-l] Does this mean what I think it means?


> This may be old to y'all now,

What? That the USPTO is still on drugs?

Well, here's the abstract in its entirety:

"A method and system for placing an order to purchase an item via the
Internet. The order is placed by a purchaser at a client system and
received by a server system. The server system receives purchaser
information including identification of the purchaser, payment
information, and shipment information from the client system. The server
system then assigns a client identifier to the client system and
associates the assigned client identifier with the received purchaser
information. The server system sends to the client system the assigned
client identifier and an HTML document identifying the item and 
including
an order button. The client system receives and stores the assigned 
client
identifier and receives and displays the HTML document. In response to 
the
selection of the -order button, the client system sends to the server
system a request to purchase the identified item. The server system
receives the request and combines the purchaser information associated
with the client identifier of the client system to generate an order to
purchase the item in accordance with the billing and shipment 
information
whereby the purchaser effects the ordering of the product by selection 
of
the order button."

Appropriately, the headline preceding the abstract is:

"Method and system for displaying and editing of information"

In other words, Amazon.com claims to have invented essentially the 
HTTP/HTML
request-response loop between a user-agent and a server, and ecommerce 
in
passing.

Patent was filed Sept 1997, and is a continuation of a number of other
patents. Certainly, I wasn't the only one doing this prior to late 1997. 
I'd
love to know who they think they'll sue. :-)

Ziya
Nullius in Verba