On Sep. 13, SHOOK, HARDY &BACON filed a Patent Application on behalf of Microsoft at the US Patent and Trademark Office.
It wouldn’t be the first time except the fact that Microsoft wants to patent “Advertising triggered by sequences of user actions” which is in fact the same thing as Adware. Sweet.
The Abstract of the claim is eclectic but the hundred page document is very specific on browsing, downloading mp3s, pictures, and online multimedia... pretty much everything a user can do on his computer and which could trigger the display of advertising
Quote: “Selecting advertisements for presentation based on user actions on a computing device is provided. The selected advertisements are associated with products or services that enable or enhance tasks that a user may be attempting to perform on the user device.
User actions on the computing device are tracked, and tasks that a user is likely attempting to perform are determined based on the tracked user actions. A determination is also made regarding whether any of these likely tasks are not currently enabled or may be enhanced. Advertisements are then selected and presented for tasks that are not currently enabled or may be enhanced.”
Now that’s a new revenue stream for Microsoft: going after all the Adware companies just to get a piece of the gazillion dollars cake.
