Microsoft is caught up in an ongoing dispute with various internetthe internet because it doesn't have the resources to check applications. advocates, over a new patent that appears to give the software giant control over two key internet standards.

But the problem is more a symptom of deficiencies in the US patent system than Microsoft's desire to control the internet.

"Our concern is that these people are getting patents for some fundamental parts of the web. This is not about Microsoft per se," said George Olsen, project leader for the Web Standards Group (WSG).

Many thousands of patents are issued every year. The problem stems from Group 2,300 of the US Patent and Trademark Office. This body looks after the registration of inventions in the area of "Computer Systems and Computer Applications." To qualify for registration, an invention is supposed to be 'new' or 'not obvious'.

The main problem is that the US Patent Office is overrun with applications and doesn't have the resources to research 'Prior Art' to the level of detail required. Prior Art is the term used for evidence that proves that the idea isn't new.

This is having a big impact on internet use. For example, the fundamental act of using your credit card to buy goods online is held by OpenMarket, in patent number 5724424. And the huge number of online stores that allow electronic shopping carts to collect items for purchase are now in violation of patent number 5715314, also owned by Open Market.

What about embedding a few hot links in your e-mails to past customers, saying 'click here for our new site'? Yes, you've guessed it, you're violating patent number 5790793, held by NetDelivery.

Even rewarding people for reading your advertising - such as giving them a freebie as an incentive - will get you in trouble. This is known as 'Attention Brokerage' in the advertising game and Cybergold holds the online patent for it - number 5794210.

Perhaps the most interesting is patent number 4289930, which describes an apparatus that can connect across a telephone line to request and receive 'pages' from a 'databank'. GEC was awarded this in 1981, which begs the question: does GEC own the internet?

"Neither the US Patent Office, nor the patent bar community, nor the large companies that file thousands of patent applications are taking the patenting process seriously. They have reduced it to a big joke," said Greg Aharonian of the Internet Patent News Service.

The result of all this is that an unwary company can stumble into a minefield of litigation. Microsoft itself was found guilty in 1994 of violating STAC's patent on data compression. The cost? $120m (#73m) in compensatory damages.

This situation can only get worse, as the number of IT patents being awarded is increasing steadily year-on-year. For example, last year IBM was awarded 2,658 US patents, 375 of which were related to network computing.

The total figure represents 934 more than IBM earned the year before.

Canon came second last year with 1,925 and NEC was third with 1,628. That is an awful lot of patents for smaller networking companies to navigate their way around.

PATENT INFORMATION

A searchable index of US patents can be found at: www.uspto.gov

For the Internet Patent News Service e-mail patents@world.std.com, using the word 'help' in the subject line.