Re: "Third Level" domains not patented

Uh, no, that's not what the article said and it's not what the patent, which is linked from the article, says. The patent is on the tiny tweak of selling matching e-mail addresses and domains (it says URLs but their examples show domains) of the form argle@bargle.tld and argle.bargle.tld.

I'm sure there is prior art from the discussions in 1996 but I can't remember enough details to dig that up. However here is something from 2 Jan 1997 that is clearly prior art for the selling personal domain names to people in the form first.last.something. http://listes.cru.fr/wws/arc/isoc.nommage/1997-01/msg00017.html Pass it on to anyone else who may be interested. --Michael Dillon