ExitExchange was founded in 1999 to develop and licence
pop-under advertising. It last week announced that its patent
application covering all forms of pop-under advertising was
published by the US Patent and Trademark Office on 14th February
2002.
The company hopes to exploit the American Inventors Protection
Act of 1999, which came into force in November 2000 to justify a
claim for royalties from February 2002, even though the patent has
not yet been granted.
The Act was passed to allow an inventor to publish a patent
application before the patent has been approved, and to notify
anyone who appears to be copying the idea that the invention is in
the patent process. US patent applications were not published prior
to the Act coming into force.
Upon approval of the patent by the US Patent and Trademark
Office, an inventor can rely on the 1999 Act to seek infringement
damages for the period since the date of publication. Prior to
November 2000, the inventor could not back-date the infringement
action. The period between publication and approval is typically
around 18 months.
ExitExchange claims that “pop-under ads have become the most
effective form of advertising on the web today, and are reviving a
sluggish internet advertising market. Highly trafficked sites
including Yahoo!, AltaVista and Hotmail are now offering pop-under
advertising campaigns at a premium to their advertising
customers.”
