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<font face="verdana" size=3><b><a href="http://newsletter.infoworld.com/t?ctl=6C29E5:24B9914">Network
Associates is granted broad antispam patent<br>
</a></b></font><font face="verdana" size=2>Posted June 1, 10:54 a.m.
Pacific Time<br><br>
Network Associates Inc. (NAI) has been granted a broad U.S. patent for
technology covering "various computer program products, systems and
methods" for filtering unwanted e-mail messages, it said
Tuesday.
<a href="http://newsletter.infoworld.com/t?ctl=6C29E5:24B9914">>>
READ MORE</a><br><br>
<b><u>Can MailScanner prove it implemented Bayes rules and compound
filtering First? (December 2002)<br><br>
</u></font><div align="center"><font size=3>Network Associates is granted
broad antispam patent<br>
</b>Multiple spam filtering techniques are included<br>
<br>
<img src="cid:6.1.0.6.2.20040602103353.05fe9150@mail.eteam.com.au.0" width=750 height=1 alt="ab1830d.jpg"><br>
<br>
<b>By Scarlet Pruitt, IDG News Service</b> June 01, 2004<br><br>
<br>
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Network Associates Inc. (NAI) has been granted a broad U.S. patent for
technology covering "various computer program products, systems and
methods" for filtering unwanted e-mail messages, it said Tuesday.
<br><br>
<br>
The antivirus software company said that U.S. patent no. 6,732,157
encompasses use of multiple spam-filtering techniques such as compound
filters, paragraph hashing, and Bayes rules. These techniques have been
proposed and used by a number of antispam technology proponents and it
was not clear from the filing how the patent would affect competitors to
NAI's McAfee antispam offerings. <br><br>
"To me this looks like a pretty broad patent," said Rob Tosti,
partner in the Patent and Intellectual Property Practice Group of Testa,
Hurwitz & Thibeault, LLP in Boston. <br><br>
Tosti said that using Bayes Rules to calculate the probability of a
message being spam was an idea that began to gain momentum in mid-2002.
And although NAI applied for the patent in December of 2002, the granted
patent presumes that the company has a valid claim. <br><br>
Santa Clara, California, NAI is just the latest industry player to tout a
broad antispam patent. Late last year e-mail security firm Postini Inc.
was awarded a U.S. patent for an e-mail "preprocessing service"
which included using antispam methods such as e-mail filtering and virus
detection. Some legal experts have expressed doubt that the patent will
stand up to challenges given its wide scope. <br><br>
Antivirus software vendor Symantec Corp. has also made a recent patent
play. It paid $62.5 million last year to acquire a patent that covers
computer hardware or software that scans data in transit between two
'mediums.' <br><br>
It's perhaps no surprise that security vendors are staking their claims
with the antivirus software market set for a compound annual growth rate
(CAGR) of 15 percent through 2007 to $4.4 billion, according to IDC. The
researcher also predicts that messaging security will increase at a CAGR
of over 35 percent through 2007 to $1.1 billion. <br><br>
As competition continues to escalate, it remains to be seen how the
security rivals will wield their intellectual property claims. <br>
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