A perfect example of the stupidity of Web-based patents: IBM has been granted the patent for Web templates. And in case you think the company filed this long ago, it didn’t.

On June 19, 1998, a patent was filed for a “[s]ystem and method for building a web site using specific interface” by Richard S. Bernardo, Christopher Logan, and Elena Karra of IBM. An excerpt:

The tool comprises a plurality of pre-stored templates, comprising HTML formatting code, text, fields and formulas… Based on the identified templates and supplied data, the tool generates the customized Web site without the web site creator writing any HTML or other programming code.

The funny thing is, I was working with such a system in April of 1997 (built by the folks at ThinData), and then there’s this article about some company called Vignette selling a tool based on the one used at someplace called CNET way back in 1996.

I guess prior art doesn't really matter anymore.

Follow the outrage at Slashdot.