‘Today brings with it some potentially ugly news for Yahoo and Microsoft. America Online has secured a patent for Internet instant messaging services. Filed in September of this year, the patent grants broad ownership rights to the technology, which is used by millions of people to chat quickly and cheaply across the Internet. The implications of this are, of course, legion. “The claim is it’s a system where you have a network; you have a way to monitor who’s on the network,” Gregory Aharonian, publisher of the Internet Patent News Service, told News.com. “If you’re doing something like that, you’re potentially infringing.” ‘ siliconvalley.com