Network Associates granted broad antispam patent

IDG News Service - Network Associates Inc. said today that it has been granted a broad U.S. patent for technology covering "various computer program products, systems and methods" for filtering unwanted e-mail messages.
The antivirus software company said that U.S. Patent No. 6,732,157 encompasses use of multiple spam-filtering techniques such as compound filters, paragraph hashing and Bayesian rules. These techniques have been proposed and used by a number of antispam technology proponents, and it wasn't clear from the filing how the patent would affect competitors to Network Associates' McAfee for Consumers antispam offerings.
"To me, this looks like a pretty broad patent," said Rob Tosti, a partner in the patent and intellectual property practice group at Testa, Hurwitz & Thibeault LLP in Boston.
Tosti said that using Bayesian rules to calculate the probability of a message being spam was an idea that began to gain momentum in mid-2002. And although Network Associates applied for the patent in December 2002, the granted patent presumes that the company has a valid claim.
Santa Clara, Calif.-based Network Associates is just the latest industry player to tout a broad antispam patent. Late last year, Redwood City, Calif.-based e-mail security company Postini Inc. was awarded a U.S. patent for an e-mail "preprocessing service" that included antispam methods such as e-mail filtering and virus detection. Some legal experts have expressed doubt that the patent will stand up to challenges, given its wide scope (see story).
Antivirus software vendor Symantec Corp. also made a recent patent play. The Cupertino, Calif.-based company paid $62.5 million last year to acquire a patent that covers computer hardware or software that scans data in transit between two "mediums."
It's perhaps no surprise that security vendors are staking their claims, as the antivirus software market is set for a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 15% through 2007 to $4.4 billion, according to IDC. The market research company also predicts that messaging security will increase at a CAGR of over 35% through 2007 to $1.1 billion.