Everybook Inc. Gets U.S. Patent for Electronic Book

Posted on May 4, 1998

Everybook Inc. announced Monday it has received official Notice of Allowability from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, which has accepted all 21 claims under the Electronic Book System, giving Everybook 20-year patent and trademark protection in the U.S. and its territories. The patent claims cover Everybook's EB Dedicated Reader, the process by which it downloads complete publications from its bookstore to the EB, and its methods of security and communication.

"We have created the first true electronic book," said Everybook CEO Daniel E. Munyan. "Now it will be protected as we launch our commercial operation."

The Everybook Dedicated Reader appears to be a traditional book, with two opposable screens. It will allow its owners to download books and magazines quickly from the Everybook Store, highlight and add handwritten notations, and archive complete personal libraries in an information appliance that is the size and weight of a single book.

The EB, as Munyan calls it, will be available in early 1999 in a study model aimed at professionals, and later at college students. Everybook expects to introduce a thin novel-sized consumer model before 2001.