CrystalGate Corp founder and chief technologist Larry Brader is wondering how much a key patent to a Windows 98 technology called Broadcast PC would bring if he were to auction it off. Brader is the co-owner, with Microsoft, of patents pending on a technology Redmond will ship in Windows 98 that’s intended to turn a PC into a television-style digital set-top box device. Broadcast PC includes a version of the so-called push technology that will enable users to receive information on channels, much like television. We suppose it depends on quite how much cache push technology has left after its fall from favor in net circles and what it is worth to Microsoft to keep it in house. The patents are expected to be granted in the first quarter of 1999. Brader claims to have been subcontracted to Microsoft in 1995 and 1996 to help it develop a threaded architecture which later formed the basis of Broadcast PC. Brader claims he was pursued by Redmond’s legal mafia to sign over his patent rights after he left the project because of the way it was being managed, but refused. He says he’s not picking a fight with Microsoft but simply wants to make some money out of the jointly invented technology. A raffle might bring in many millions of dollars but at this point in time Brader says he doesn’t have the money, or the time on his hands to organize it and would consider alternative suggestions. Equipped with DirectShow, a television tuner card and Windows 98 including Broadcast PC, Microsoft says the broadcast-enabled computer will blend television with a new world of interactive entertainment and information possibilities. The flexible filter architecture of DirectShow will supposedly manage the process of receiving, decoding, transforming, scheduling and displaying interdependent video, audio, and data streams. Meantime it seems everyone wants a piece of Microsoft, and we don’t mean stock. After the Department of Justice and Caldera Inc comes retired IBM Corp patent attorney Martin Reiffen. A recent BusinessWeek article said Reiffen has charged Microsoft with infringing two patents he was granted on December 15 covering pre-emptive multi-tasking – enabling the operating system to carry out more than one task at the same time. We presume Reiffen could of course go after Apple, Sun or any other vendor which sell a multi-tasking operating system. Reiffen’s going after the money, the paper says.
