Small web firm Balthaser has been granted a patent for using Flash, Flex, Java, Ajax, and XAML over the internet.
I hope this is a non-issue. The guy says he won't enforce the patent himself but will sell it off to the highest bidder.
Am I the only one who thinks that it is ironic that someone who says he's been using this technology since the 1990s, still has a full-Flash site with non skip link?
He sounds like the most annoying bloke ever. "My mom saw me struggling, and one day said, 'Why don't you figure out a way to bottle up that Balthaser magic.'" Urgh. Just the fact that he could even think of patenting something like this earns him the disrespect of all the web developers out there and proves that he just doesn't get it.
I can't see how this will make it past the first legal test. It certainly doesn't appear that he was influential in the development of any of these technologies.
I'm off to patent electricity. I've been using it for 30 years now and I'm sure no-one else has.