Network Associates patents file deletion

A method for cleaning a computer, comprising:

downloading a cleaning program separate from an anti-virus propram to a computer;
searching for undesired software on the computer utilizing the cleaning program;
searching for undesired data on the computer utilizing the cleaning program;
deleting the undesired software from the computer utilizing the cleaning program;
deleting the undesired data from the computer utilizing the cleaning program;

etc. The patent goes on to describe such revolutionary techniques as: Automated upgrades of software that needs upgrading and even: Performing diagnostics on the computer.

Clearly none of this is in any way "obvious [...] to a person having ordinary skill in the art", since otherwise those stringent examiners at the USPTO would not have been allowed to grant the patent.

It goes without saying that nobody thought of doing this before, or those clever desk-boffins at the USPTO would have thrown the patent out for 'prior art'.

We at the INQUIRER would like to contgratulate Network Associates on their excellent invention. They will clearly want to make good use of the patent. As a first step, might we recommend suing Microsoft for their windowsupdate.microsoft.com website, which is clearly in blatant violation of the patent, filed October 4, 2002? Particularly sneaky, we feel, for Microsoft to use a time machine to start the violations already before the patent filing date!

All this adds extra urgency to the need for US-style software patents here in Europe. Clearly, innovation is being stifled on a huge scale when groundbreaking inventions like " generating a report including a graph that is based on a statistical analysis" are denied the protection of a state-enforced monopoly. µ