[auxym]

If that patent was filed in 98, it expired in 2018.

[mrfusion]

I wonder if lots of bad parents have expired or are expiring soon? I remember reading the most dumb patents on slashdot in the early 2000s so maybe.

[vikramkr]

Software patents have gotten a lot harder to get with a lot more stringent a set of requirements than at the start of the dot com boom, at least as of the Alice ruling in 2014. It could always be reversed, but for now, most of these really bad patents are going to die out/be invalidated and hopefully reduce the power of patent trolls

[rhacker]

I guess we can all thank the original dot-com boom for creating a bunch of patents a little over 20 years ago! :P