AT&T has been awarded (as of Nov. 4th) a patent on a common technique used by spammers to evade spam filters.
http://news.earthweb.com/IAR/article.php/3111281
So conspiracy theorists can ponder.. will AT&T use this patent to sue spammers for patent infringement?
Recently approved patent:
http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-P...S=PN/6,643,686
Fight the Spamming!