See that ad up there (^)?
Online ad firm DoubleClick announced Monday it won a patent on the technology that brings it to you -- providing the latest example of a series of patents on fundamental Internet operations that could dramatically impact the Web.
See also: Net Overloads US Patent Agency- - - - - -
It could also dramatically prove to be another futile Internet patent.
"It appears to be a broad patent which covers what many companies in the industry are doing today," said Jeff Epstein, executive vice president of mergers and acquisitions for DoubleClick.
But industry experts say the patent may be too broad, especially if it's ever challenged in the courts.
In its announcement, the company said the patent, issued 7 September and entitled "Method of Delivery, Targeting, and Measuring Advertising Over Networks," covered the "dynamic delivery of Internet advertising by a third party ad server to a network of Web sites or an individual site."
That describes the basic workings of the entire Internet advertising industry, so the implications would seem to be far-reaching.
"The plan would be to license the patent to others in the industry in a way that maximizes the value of the patent and protects our rights," Epstein said.
DoubleClick delivers ads to more than 1,300 sites in its network, including the AltaVista search engine, Egghead.com, and US News Online. Advertisers include AT&T and IBM.
Epstein wouldn't name competitors affected by the patent, saying it was premature. But he said the process would involve working out a reasonable licensing fee for competitors to pay.
One such competitor is NetGravity. But since the company announced a merger with DoubleClick in July, it declined to comment on the patent (the merger has not yet been finalized).
Another company with Internet ad-serving technology is Flycast Communications.
"On the surface level it seems very broad.... It does seem like [the] Windows [patent], which everyone utilizes, and that patent was thrown out," said Lyn Chitow Oakes, executive vice president and chief marketing officer for Flycast.
Oakes said Flycast has its own patent pending on ad serving technology, but she doesn't expect the patents to affect each other. "The way that we deliver ads and the way that DoubleClick delivers ads is different," she said.
Flycast's patent lawyer is trying to understand the basis of the DoubleClick patent, she added. "Is it unique? I don't know the answer to that question," Oakes said.
DoubleClick's targeted ad-delivery technology is called DART. The company calls it a dynamic analysis tool that collects information on audience behavior, which is then used to target ads. DART also measures Web traffic and ad effectiveness and provides that data to both Web publishers and advertisers.
Accordingly, the patent itself describes methods for targeting the delivery of ads over a network such as the Internet. It also incorporates the compiling of statistics on individual users and the use of those stats to target ads.
