Legal Trends (Part I): Patenting the Internet

Virtually every window of time can be identified by its technological advances. The industrial revolution of the 1800's gave way to the transportation revolution of the early 20th century. The development of synthetics such as nylon and plastics were followed by an electronics revolution built on transistors and early computers. The silicon chip lead to personal computers and chip-driven devices as the 20th century wound down. \ud \ud But these technological changes pale to that which the Internet has brought to the information industry. After 500 years of building on print technologies, the Internet has restructured this industry in a way that is unmatched by other fields of endeavor. The transformation brought on by the Internet, occurring over a fraction of the industry’s life-cycle, has been nothing short of–to use the cliche–revolutionary.\ud \ud All of these technological transformations operate within a number of legal structures. One of the most critical of these structures, yet often least understood, is patent law. In this article, the author explores and explains the complexities involved in determining patentability for Internet-related technologies, such as e-mail, web browsing, TCP/IP software and e-commerce, and in particular, federated searching by WebFeat.\u