GoDaddy WHOIS Protection Patent

[Unknown]

I was doing some research on the WHOIS protection services out there when I stumbled up on this site:

Domains by Proxy®

Apparently owned by GoDaddy and is what they use for their WHOIS protection.

The footer of the site displays a US patent number, I looked it up and here it is:

Single Document

My question is, if GoDaddy does have the patent for WHOIS protection, how can other registrars (Enom/Namecheap/Directi etc) provide WHOIS protection also?

If I were to start a WHOIS protection service, would GoDaddy have the legal right to go after me?

 

[Name Trader]

Not if you don't infringe on their patent.

 

[Unknown]

Their patent is pretty broad though. Covers almost everything you would/could do with a WHOIS protection service.

In their abstract, they even mention the ability to filter forwarded emails to their clients.

 

[cartoonz]

and it is completely worthless....

 

[Unknown]

Thats not the point. Point is how do you not infringe on a patent so broad. Trying to figure out how Enom/Namecheap and all the other registrars are getting away without "infringing" on the patent.

 

[cartoonz]

That is exactly the point.

That patent is worthless.

There is no way that BloDaddy/Parsnip would ever be able to enforce it. They did not invent it, not by a long shot. There are all sorts of examples of prior art.

So, yeah... theoretically "everyone else" is breaking the patent but in the real world, everyone knows that this particular patent is not only worthless but also completely unenforceable.

 

[Unknown]

Got it. Thanks