[funsec] TrendMicro goes...

[security curmudgeon]

On Thu, 31 Jan 2008, Paul Ferguson wrote:

: It bears repeating that this is not about prior art in AV scanning, but 
: rather, doing so on a gateway device (e.g. appliance) which Trend Micro 
: was the first to do -- hence the patent.

Likewise, bears repeating: 

  If prior art had anti-virus software scanning incoming mail for viruses 
  before passing to the client, but only did so on the SMTP server.. and 
  the TM patent covers an additional device (proxy / appliance / 
  whatever), then that is hardly patent-worthy in many people's opinion.


If you disagree, then I should patent a system where the mail is passed to 
*two* devices before the SMTP server, one which scans for MALWARE since 
the patent only says 'virus', and the other that scans for viruses. Such a 
patent can be worded the same as the TM patent, just s/virus/malware and 
it should be just as valid. Right?