Isn't that actually what patents are for? You think of it first, it's legally yours. The patent is not for if you do anything with it or not. But did they think of it first though. Did calling for external applications to run embedded media in hypermedia documents exist before it was filed in 1994?
Well, from a civil political science perspective, that is
not "what patents are for". Patents and copyrights exist
to promote the development of works and technologies, not to promote thinking about maybe someday thinking more about making something.
The idea of a patent is to give the inventor time to (1) bring his idea to market, and (2) profit off that idea, before someone else can use the idea to make their own alternative (cheaper because they don't have to pay back the creditors from having been sitting in the basement trying to figure things out for several years).
The idea of a patent is
not to promote some kind of an "idea economy" where so long as you can document you thought of an idea "first" every user of that idea (or any stemming from it) must pay you penance every day until the end of time.
This is primarily why software patents are ludicrous: it takes very little time to bring a software innovation to market and profit from it (not 20 years, the standard patent term in the US, which makes sense for a new type of engine but not so much for software which would undergo 20 generational rebirths in that time).
Software patents serve no other purpose than to stifle the industry, as they currently stand. A patent term of 12-18 months would be far more in keeping with the pace of software generations than 20 years, but I suspect the whole concept will just be thrown out instead.
I recall this was possible with Quicktime in Hypercard documents before that date if memory serves.
Edit: I also recall that the well-known pointing hand icon we see on clickable links also originated from Hypercard. And pretty much everything else too. The html internet is basically Hypercard networked from servers. So is the key word in their patent actually 'networked'? So they simply copied an existing and working concept to apply it to the new emerging internet technology before anyone else could. Like patenting the existing four wheels on horse buggies for use on automobiles.
Umm, yes, pretty much like that. This patent is
nothing at all like Hypercard, because, you see, this is for embedding application code directed by a server
on the worldwide web. Since the WWW didn't exist when Hypercard did its thing, obviously that's not prior art. The other flaw with software patents is that patent clerks are not exactly technology experts. Read the original Microsoft ruling and how the Viola prior art (which, IMHO, was completely solid) was thrown out primarily because the Viola developer didn't have the time to demonstrate it acting across a network (which MS appealed, but which appeal deferred to the original judge's judgement on the Viola question).
IMHO, for those asking "what hope does Apple have if MS forked over cash", the answer is threefold:
1. Apple/Google/etc have legal cause to revisit the Viola ruling from scratch, which was procedurally impossible in the MS appeal.
2. More recent rulings have been less friendly to product-less patent trolls (which Eolas arguably are, as they did not bring any product to market between their MS ruling and now, either).
3. Potential upcoming changes to patent law to exclude entirely or drastically reduce the impact of software patents may come in time to cause the whole thing to be thrown out of court.