the only person to win out of that contest imo will be the fat corporate lawyers. The whole area of patents especially in areas of technology is a mess.
Patents are supposed to protect innovation, and not stop competition. A significant proportion of patents esp in the US have been given when they are vastly over-generic e.g 'the ability to use a web browser to sell commodities via clicking a button' or 'being able to store and re-display previously views items'. ie e-commerce and cookies/sessions.
This will be thrown out but not before a vast amount of money is wasted. Though it may result in some landmark ruling and bringing the whole patenting rules up to date with the specificity of modern technology.
S
