Network Associates Inc. has been granted a broad U.S. patent for technology covering "various computer program products, systems and methods" for filtering unwanted e-mail messages.
The antivirus software company said that U.S. Patent No. 6,732,157 encompasses use of multiple spam-filtering techniques such as compound filters, paragraph hashing and Bayesian rules. These techniques have been proposed and used by a number of antispam technology proponents, and it wasn't clear from the filing how the patent would affect competitors to Network Associates' McAfee for Consumers antispam offerings.
Antivirus software vendor Symantec Corp. also made a recent patent play. The Cupertino, Calif.-based company paid $62.5 million last year to acquire a patent that covers computer hardware or software that scans data in transit between two "mediums."
I wonder if there's a patent on the patenting process.. :S The full story is available here.