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Software Patent
of the year 2006

	Patent 1
	Patent 2
	Patent 3
	Patent 4
	Patent 5
	Patent 6
	Patent 7

DE10048113 – Device and method for filtering individually information transferred via network

German patent on software (algorithm)
Application to the German Patent Office on 28/09/2000 by Nutzwerk Informationsgesellschaft mbH (Germany)
Granted on 01/08/2002
Valid no more than until 28/09/2020
Patent attorney: Köllner & Kewitz
Patent specification provided by EPO/espacenet
Prize: innovation prize of the city of Leipzig 2001

Advice on the reading of patent specifications:

The decisive element are the claims, as they specify which actions are forbidden within the framework of the patent.
Violating one single claim is sufficient to be considered a patent violation. Generally, claim number 1 is the decisive main claim which covers all other claims relating to special cases.
The description is intended to help the reader interpret the claim. At the same time, it is supposed to document and disclose the details of the invention. This disclosure is the original purpose of the entire patent system.
In practice, a patent specification contains no detailed information on how the patented procedure could be implemented (even if the patent owner allowed the implementation). In particular, a software patent contains no program code (reference implementation), but merely describes the idea of a software.

Patented idea: Filtering content individually for every user within a network

Main claims (claims 1 and 13): Information being transferred via network to the user's equipment is filtered according to user-specific rules, which refer to type, size, content, point of time etc. and logical combinations of the mentioned criteria

Further claims:

Claims on a method:

Loading user profile in the build-up of the connection including filter rules
Special case: filtering the internet connection
Administration of the user identification data by means of the "network-access-server"
Masking of local network addresses (NAT)
Buffering of the filtered data (cache)

Claims on a device (e.g. computer including software):

Integration with web-proxy
Special case: checking the occurrence of certain words, domain-blacklists and whitelists
Rules can be altered by the user
Special case: virus-check
Integration with firewall
Saving user-specific statistics

Description: The patent specification states that there are yet individual filters for various criteria. An introduction to the concept of regular expressions is given, then the analysis of incoming and outgoing stream of data is mentioned as the "distinctive feature to the state of the art". Reference is made to he possibility of integrating web-proxy and/or firewall.

Everyday parallel: The employees of a company individually tell the collegues of the telephone switchboard for which types of incoming calls they feel responsible for, e.g.: "I only accept technical enquiries. Please put through enquiries about offers only, if Example Inc. is calling."

Examples for patent infringements: