Ideaflood Inc. is an intellectual property holding company owned
by Brian Shuster. He previously ran porn web sites that were
accused by the Federal Trade Commission of deceptively charging
customers. While he is said to have made millions from internet
porn, with which he is still involved, he now sees Ideaflood's
patents as his best potential revenue source.
His pop-up ad patent application was filed in 1998 and granted
in 2002. Last week, Shuster modestly told MSNBC news, "I apologise
for being a pioneer."
Specifically, the patent appears to cover the method that web
site operators use to pop-open a window or otherwise redirect a
surfer when that surfer tries to leave a web site. According to
Shuster's company, businesses operating on the internet generated
an estimated $1.85 billion in combined revenues in 2002 "by using
methods covered by Ideaflood's exit traffic patent."
However, such exit traffic ads are an irritation to most
internet users. This view was judicially endorsed in Germany when
the Regional Court of Duesseldorf ruled in March that such ads
breach the country's unfair competition laws.
The Court reasoned that such pop-ups are comparable to spam
because, like spam, users are forced against their express will to
take notice of unsolicited offers.
Ideaflood calls its pop-up ad system the "Traffic Management
Utility" or "TMU," and it provides for a method of directing a
client when they are exiting a web page or web site.
According to Computer Industry Almanac and Datamonitor, the
combined 2002 revenue from the two most profitable internet
segments, adult entertainment and on-line gaming, was $9.25
billion. And Ideaflood claims that around 20% of this came from
using its patented technology.
Shuster's latest invention is the subject of another patent
application: a pop-up audio ad that cannot be turned off.
