[mapserver-users] Patent on making maps on the Internet

[Daniel Morissette]

Some of you may remember the patent that was awarded to multimap.com 
back in 2000-2001. We all thought it was dead, but I came across a blog 
a few days ago (http://www.systemed.net/blog/?p=68) that leads to the 
conclusion that Microsoft (who bought multimap.com) may have started 
licensing this patent (or some related one).

I don't think there is much to worry about given the amount of prior 
art, but since this blog was very well written and contained lots of 
interesting references, I started a page in the OSGeo wiki to keep a 
trace of all that collective knowledge, in case it is ever needed.

The wiki entry is at http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Web_Mapping_Patents, and 
as for any wiki, you are welcome to contribute any relevant info that 
you may have.

Daniel
-- 
Daniel Morissette
http://www.mapgears.com/