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@@ -0,0 +1,43 @@ +Please be apprised of the following Legal Notices: + +A) The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia has +ruled that the Netscape Navigator code does not infringe Wang's U.S. +Patent No. 4,751,669 ("the '669 Patent") because: 1) HTML is not +Videotex as defined by the '669 patent; 2) web servers are not central +suppliers; and 3) Navigator does not "connect," as defined by the '669 +Patent, to web servers on the Internet. Wang may appeal this decision to +the Federal Circuit. Wang contended that its Patent disclosing a +"Videotex" system, is infringed by the following functionality in the +Netscape Navigator code: 1) the animated logo and status line indicators +--See Claims 1,8 and 9; 2) the "File Save As" function --See Claims +23-27; 3) Bookmarks and Rename Bookmarks in the Properties window --See +Claims 20-22; 4) storing HTML, GIF, and JPEG files and adding filename +extensions --See Claim 38 + +B) Intermind owns pending U.S. patent applications on communications +systems which employ metadata ("channel objects") to define a control +structure for information transfer. The Netscape code does not infringe +as released; however, modifications which utilize channel objects as +described by Intermind should be considered carefully. The following is +a statement from Intermind: "Intermind's claims fundamentally involve +the use of a control structure to automate communications. ...The +essence of Intermind's top claim is that two devices sender and receiver +have persistent storage, communicate over a network, and exchange a +control structure including metadata which describes: 1) what +information is to be updated, 2) when to update this information, and 3) +how to transfer the updated information. In addition, at least the +receiving device must be able to process the metadata in order to +perform the update determination and transfer. Any digital +communications system which incorporates all of these elements will be +covered by Intermind's patents." See Intermind.com. + +C) Stac, Inc., and its licensing agent Hi/fn, own several patents which +disclose data compression methods implementing an LZS compression +algorithm, including U.S. Patent Nos. 4,701,745 and 5,016, 009 ("the +Stac Patents"). The Netscape Communicator code does not perform +compression. If you modify the Netscape source code to perform +compression, please take notice of the Stac Patents. + +D) Netscape Communications Corporation ("Netscape") does not guarantee +that any source code or executable code available from the mozilla.org +domain is Year 2000 compliant. |