Help EFF bust a bogus VoIP patent

EFF is going to bust a bogus Voice Over IP patent that threatens the entire world of net telephony, but they need your help. They're seeking examples of prior art to help invalidate a patent by a company called Acceris:
Specifically, the claims describe a system that connects two parties where the receiving party does not need to have a computer or an Internet connection, but the call is routed in part through the Internet or any other “public computer network”. The calls must also be “full duplex”, meaning that both parties can listen and talk at the same time, like in an ordinary phone call.

We would like to prove that the method and system described in the patents are not novel. To bust these overly broad claims, we need “prior art” – any publication, article, patent or other public writing that describes the same or similar ideas being implemented before September 20, 1995.

Link

Cory Doctorow

Upcoming appearances

* Feb 9, 2012, DeKalb, IL: Day of Doctorow, NIU
* Feb 10-12, 2012, Chicago, IL: Capricon 32
* Feb 13, 2012, Arlington, TX: UT Arlington College of Engineering Distinguished Speaker Series
* Feb 16, 2012, Victoria, BC: 13th Annual Privacy and Security Conference

Recent books:
* Context (essays)
* With a Little Help (short stories)
* For the Win (YA novel)
* Makers (adult novel)

Where not otherwise specified, this work is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution. Boing Boing is a trademark of Happy Mutants LLC in the United States and other countries.