Could this effect your company?
 

PanIP LLC
has sued more than 50 companies in the last seven months,
claiming that their E-commerce Web sites infringe its two U.S.
patents. The patents, No. 5,576,951 and No. 6,289,319, cover,
respectively, an "automated sales and services system," and
an "automatic business and financial transaction-processing
system."

Patent Troubles Pending
http://www.informationweek.com/story/IWK20021020S0002

Could this have any effect on the adult biz?

'The claims in these patents being asserted in the lawsuits refer to "a computerized system for selecting and ordering a variety of information, goods and services" and "an automatic data-processing system for processing business and financial transactions between entities from remote sites". '

... you can NOT patent an idea; only a process. I've noticed a number of these software patent suits hinge on the premise that their idea is patented. No. Their process for implementing the idea might be patented, but there's more than one way to do things with a computer.

I'm not a lawyer by any means, but I've seen some chemical and pharmaceutical patents. They don't patent the molecule (you can't) but they can patent the process used to make the molecule.

I would imagine computer software patents (be you for them or against them) would have to follow the same rules. Otherwise, hell, I think I'll patent the idea of using a monitor to relay information... and a second patent on the idea of using a keyboard to respond to that information.

Hard work to make software work I can respect -- even the possiblity of patents -- though copyright seem more applicable. However, all these companies popping out of nowhere and demanding that basic internet functions are their exclusive, patented technology can and should go lick some nut sack.

:321GFY

*cough* Bullshit *cough* you can patent an idea, or namely a business practice. See what happens when you don't pay attention to the ways big business is ruining your life??