Re: Comparing Google-MSN-Yahoo Maps

>From what I can tell, you have patented the idea of a sidebar.
"Our patented retrieval bars (or tabs) for filling Rich Internet layers
give smooth, all-in-one-page access to large geographic data sets. "

And clickable icons in the sidebar:
"Patented Clickable Key:"

The amount you guys throw around the word "patented" really worries me.
Do these guys honestly own the IP rights for sidebars ? Are we going to
have to start paying them to use features that we have been using since
BEFORE they put up an example and announced it to the world (August
2005 appears to be their first dated map)

Anyone here who knows much about patents ? Fancy looking into it and
seeing if we need to worry about these guys ?

Patent:
http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=/netahtml/search-bool.html&r=25&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=ptxt&s1=6,307,573&OS=6,307,573&RS=6,307,573