PatentBrief

Era in Patents

The 1990s

Tim Berners-Lee released the web into the public domain, but everything around it was patented furiously. GSM standardized mobile telephony, lithium-ion batteries went commercial, and search engines, streaming codecs, and one-click checkout flows became foundational software patents. The decade's filings still underwrite the cloud, e-commerce, and wireless infrastructure we use every day.

By year

1990199119921993199419951996199719981999

Top patents · 23 ranked by influence

19901999

US 5960411 · 1999 · Amazon com Inc

How Amazon's One-Click Online Ordering System Works

US 5825352 · 1998 · Logitech Inc

How Touchpads Detect Two Fingers for Clicks and Drags

US 5774660 · 1998 · Resonate Inc

World-wide-web server with delayed resource-binding for resource-based load balancing on a distributed resource multi-node network

US 5966126 · 1999

Graphic user interface for database system

US 5347632 · 1994 · Prodigy Services Co

How Early Online Services Delivered Applications Using Networked 'Objects'

US 5838906 · 1998 · University of California San Diego UCSD

Microsoft's Browser Patent — At the Center of the Biggest Antitrust Case in Tech

US 5673322 · 1997 · Bell Communications Research Inc

System and method for providing protocol translation and filtering to access the world wide web from wireless or low-bandwidth networks

US 5774670 · 1998 · Netscape Communications Corp

The HTTP Cookie — How Websites Remember Who You Are

US 5455030 · 1995 · Enzon Labs Inc

Immunotheraphy using single chain polypeptide binding molecules

US 5657390 · 1997 · Netscape Communications Corp

Secure socket layer application program apparatus and method

US 5903495 · 1999 · Toshiba Corp

Semiconductor device and memory system

US 5946647 · 1999 · Apple Computer Inc

System and method for performing an action on a structure in computer-generated data

US 5191573 · 1993

How to Buy and Download Digital Music or Movies Over a Phone Line

US 5440632 · 1995 · Scientific Atlanta LLC

Reprogrammable subscriber terminal

US 5920821 · 1999 · Bell Atlantic Network Services Inc

Use of cellular digital packet data (CDPD) communications to convey system identification list data to roaming cellular subscriber stations

US 5682513 · 1997 · International Business Machines Corp

Cache queue entry linking for DASD record updates

US 5487069 · 1996 · Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization CSIRO

The WiFi Patent — How an Australian Government Lab Made Wireless Work Indoors

US 5579430 · 1996 · Fraunhofer Gesellschaft zur Foerderung der Angewandten Forschung eV

Digital encoding process

US 5346778 · 1994 · Energy Partners Inc

Electrochemical load management system for transportation applications

US 4914603 · 1990 · GTE Laboratories Inc

Training neural networks

US 5401560 · 1995 · Norton Co

Polymer backed material with non-slip surface using E-beam cured urethane binder

US 5013088 · 1991 · Data Tech Services Inc

Disintegratable masking label

US 5561631 · 1996 · Xilinx Inc

High-speed minimal logic self blank checking method for programmable logic device

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