ten most recent Microsoft patent applications ..

[Doug Mentohl]

'Proxy engine for custom handling of Web content'

'Electronic program guide displayed simultaneously with television
programming'

'Multiple paradigms within a single application'

'Test results management'

'Secure network location awareness'

'Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP)'

'Techniques to allocate virtual network addresses'

'Managing navigation history for intra-page state transitions'

'Online advertising relevance verification '

'Updating contents of asynchronously refreshable Web pages'

http://www.networkworld.com/news/2009/031609-microsoft-patent-sampler.html?tc=sw

[Mark Kent]

Post by Doug Mentohl
'Proxy engine for custom handling of Web content'
'Electronic program guide displayed simultaneously with television
programming'

Teletext (BBC invented, 1970s/80s), offered electronic programme guides
from the start, and virtually all Teletext capable sets were able to
display the programme guide and the image simultaneously. This idea
dates back at least 25 years, and there are literally millions of sets
which are/have been sold which could do this.

I really wish someone would put a stop to this ridiculous game.

Post by Doug Mentohl
'Multiple paradigms within a single application'
'Test results management'
'Secure network location awareness'
'Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP)'
'Techniques to allocate virtual network addresses'
'Managing navigation history for intra-page state transitions'
'Online advertising relevance verification '
'Updating contents of asynchronously refreshable Web pages'
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2009/031609-microsoft-patent-sampler.html?tc=sw

[jon.in.durham]

Post by Mark Kent

Post by Doug Mentohl
'Proxy engine for custom handling of Web content'
'Electronic program guide displayed simultaneously with television
programming'

Teletext (BBC invented, 1970s/80s), offered electronic programme guides
from the start, and virtually all Teletext capable sets were able to
display the programme guide and the image simultaneously. This idea
dates back at least 25 years, and there are literally millions of sets
which are/have been sold which could do this.

Teletext (or Viewdata), only offered programme listings, it was not in
any way a 'EPG' in the modern sense.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teletext

I think your are confusing it with PDC/VPS.

http://625.uk.com/pdc/

[Mark Kent]

Post by jon.in.durham

Post by Mark Kent

Post by Doug Mentohl
'Proxy engine for custom handling of Web content'
'Electronic program guide displayed simultaneously with television
programming'

Teletext (BBC invented, 1970s/80s), offered electronic programme guides
from the start, and virtually all Teletext capable sets were able to
display the programme guide and the image simultaneously. This idea
dates back at least 25 years, and there are literally millions of sets
which are/have been sold which could do this.

Teletext (or Viewdata), only offered programme listings, it was not in
any way a 'EPG' in the modern sense.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teletext

I wasn't, no, I was comparing it with what it is. In particular, the
"what's on now/next in teletext" is exactly like an EPG is now.

Post by jon.in.durham
I think your are confusing it with PDC/VPS.
http://625.uk.com/pdc/

This is different, and I was certainly not confusing it at all. The
purpose of this is to allow video recording to follow actual schedules
rather than the published ones, which EPGs do *not* do.

You appear very unclear about what these technologies do.

For the record, I have a PDC capable video recorder, but I cannot use it
because PDC was abandoned on pressure from "copyright holders", whereas
EPGs have not been. I presume this is because EPGs do not reflect late
schedule changes.

I would also note that late model analogue TVs, video recorders and
other machines would set their time from teletext broadcasts.

[Arnoud Engelfriet]

Post by Mark Kent
For the record, I have a PDC capable video recorder, but I cannot use it
because PDC was abandoned on pressure from "copyright holders", whereas
EPGs have not been. I presume this is because EPGs do not reflect late
schedule changes.

As far as I know it was the advertisers that objected to PDC, as it
allowed people to program recordings around the ad slots.

Arnoud

[Mark Kent]

Post by Arnoud Engelfriet

Post by Mark Kent
For the record, I have a PDC capable video recorder, but I cannot use it
because PDC was abandoned on pressure from "copyright holders", whereas
EPGs have not been. I presume this is because EPGs do not reflect late
schedule changes.

As far as I know it was the advertisers that objected to PDC, as it
allowed people to program recordings around the ad slots.

I do not believe that this is correct, as PDC didn't work that way, it
merely showed the start and end times of shows, it didn't do anything
about advertising slots, many/most of which are during the shows.

[Barry Margolin]

Post by Mark Kent

Post by Doug Mentohl
'Proxy engine for custom handling of Web content'
'Electronic program guide displayed simultaneously with television
programming'

Teletext (BBC invented, 1970s/80s), offered electronic programme guides
from the start, and virtually all Teletext capable sets were able to
display the programme guide and the image simultaneously. This idea
dates back at least 25 years, and there are literally millions of sets
which are/have been sold which could do this.
I really wish someone would put a stop to this ridiculous game.

A patent covers HOW you do something, not WHAT you do. So unless
Microsoft's EPG is implemented in essentially the same way as
Teletext's, it's not necessarily prior art.

[Mark Kent]

["Followup-To:" header set to comp.os.linux.advocacy.]

Post by Barry Margolin

Post by Mark Kent

Post by Doug Mentohl
'Proxy engine for custom handling of Web content'
'Electronic program guide displayed simultaneously with television
programming'

Teletext (BBC invented, 1970s/80s), offered electronic programme guides
from the start, and virtually all Teletext capable sets were able to
display the programme guide and the image simultaneously. This idea
dates back at least 25 years, and there are literally millions of sets
which are/have been sold which could do this.
I really wish someone would put a stop to this ridiculous game.

A patent covers HOW you do something, not WHAT you do. So unless
Microsoft's EPG is implemented in essentially the same way as
Teletext's, it's not necessarily prior art.

and the word "essentially" is meaningless... which is why such kinds of
patents are clearly daft.

The title can be reduced to "method for displaying two data streams on
the same display", which is what television programming and EPGs are -
it's trivial, and silly.