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Did Microsoft steal the billion dollar idea that saved their company?
Westtown, PA – Rob Morris, inventor, is now crowdfunding to disrupt patent #6,101,510, via a reexamination. It’s a patent on the same web browser that now sits in all Windows systems and Android phones. Morris says Microsoft got a patent on a product that’s nearly identical to the one he tried to sell them nine months before they applied. His Indiegogo campaign asks for $10 from individuals who, “don’t like corporate bullies pushing people around”, and who, “don’t want to pay for stolen ideas”.
Back in the 1990′s, Rob Morris’s two man software company, V_Graph Inc., made a web browser software component so their customers, software developers, could add web browsing to applications they made. They were pleased when a Microsoft employee bought a copy. They tried to get Microsoft to publish it, and they sent it to Microsoft’s browser team. A few months later, Microsoft’s newly minted web browser component was part of their new AOL deal. The AOL deal saved Microsoft in the Browser Wars. Then, Microsoft announced the web browser component would be in their operating system for free. Suddenly, there were no buyers for Morris’s product. A while later, Microsoft used that same browser component as their main defense against the Justice Department case and claimed they could not remove the browser because it was part of their operating system.
Microsoft did not write a thank you letter to Mr. Morris and his team. Instead, Microsoft filed a patent application on the technology, but they did not mention Morris’s product as prior art. This was in spite of the fact that Morris had tried to promote his software in Microsoft’s component catalogue eleven months before they filed, and their browser team had it in hand ten months before Microsoft applied for their patent.
Mr. Morris thinks that if his software had been mentioned, Microsoft would not have gotten their patent because he says, there is a “trivial” difference between the two technologies. He also thinks the Microsoft patent should not have been granted because the technology was not really a new invention, but instead a combination of two existing things, which is why he didn’t apply. Mr. Morris has great respect for inventions and patents, and thinks when someone gets a patent one does not really deserve, that reduces the value of all patents. Abusing the patent system is one of the reasons many people want the system revamped.
His Indiegogo campaign is called Justice for Inventors. He hopes to raise enough to pay for a reexamination. Millions of people around the world are using this invention. If just 2,500 people contribute $10 each, there will be Justice for Inventors.
http://igg.me/p/justice-for-inventors/x/10166286
