PATENTS & LICENSES -- Covering Their Assets

The confusion patents can cause was reflected in a thread posted earlier this spring in a PrintPlant.com forum (which has since been renamed "Application Integration—eProduction") in response to ImageX announcing its receipt of "Notices of Allowance" for some of its patent applications. Posters speculated on whether or not an earlier patent, or prior art, might invalidate the applications. With a quick read of that patent's abstract below, it's easy to see why there might be some confusion about what all it covers: