Fischer to Users: Screw You

Herein lies the reason that the U.S. Patent system is a joke. An award of a patent "grants the right to exclude others from making, using, offering for sale or selling or importing the invention." So anyone with money to burn has the ability to be granted a patent just for the sole purpose of blocking anyone else from using the idea.

In the case of Addison Fischer, who in the early 90s bought his way onto a board seat with RSA, the USPTO awarded him two patents in 1994 and 1995 that deal with behavior blocking and integrity checking. These technologies play an important role in protecting users against today's malware threats. It's doubtful anyone knew Fischer's patents even existed (or even Fischer himself), and certainly the ideas and technologies were discussed and existed well prior to Fischer's strategic move. But thanks to the laws of the patent office, if Fischer has his way, users be damned - antivirus vendors will be prevented from employing these technologies unless he gets paid royalties. Fischer is currently using the patent-friendly east Texas court system to sue what nearly amounts to an entire industry: AVG, Check Point, Comodo, ESET, F-Secure, Iolo, Kaspersky, McAfee, Microsoft, MicroWorld Technologies, NetVeda, Norman Data Defense Systems, Novell, PC Tools, PWI, Sophos, Sunbelt Software, Symantec, Trend Micro, Velocity Micro and Webroot Software.

From a timing standpoint, Fischer's move couldn't be more insidious. Malware is at an all time high, antivirus vendors are on the front lines of the battle doing everything they can, and resources - both human and capital - are tapped. If Fischer had bothered to act on his patents and bring a product to market to help protect users, that might be one thing. But as it is, Fischer simply took advantage of an opportunity made possible by his having enough spare bucks to throw at a patent application over a dozen years ago. He stands to lose absolutely nothing since he never had a business or product based on the technology. The real losers here are the users - me, you, and everyone else. It's bad enough that malware is being used by criminals to rip us off; it seems even worse when the menace is coming from a businessman who just wants to pocket some extra cash at the expense of our safety.