bbs.spamgourmet.com

FYI - this may be of interest to this group.

Prior art? I'm at work, so don't have time to dig in to the article right now.

http://techcrunch.com/2014/02/13/apple-files-patent-for-automated-disposable-email-addresses-to-help-handle-spam/

Just about to post this as well. Here is the original patent application (Nr: 13/572857):
http://appft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-adv.html&r=14&p=1&f=G&l=50&d=PG01&S1=%28709%2F206.CCLS.+AND+20140213.PD.%29&OS=ccl/709/206+and+pd/2/13/2014&RS=%28CCL/709/206+AND+PD/20140213%29

Here is a howto on challenging patent applications:
http://www.ehow.com/how_7240683_protest-patent-application.html

as you might imagine, we really don't have the budget to challenge a patent

It's worth looking at the page images in the application. Those help to explain what Apple is doing that differs from what SG does, including:

1. No special email address format, is handled out of band via the mail server interface at address creation time.
2. Browser plugin offering to automatically generate and use a disposable address when an email address field is present.

Essentially it's a sort of hosted SG, where the mail host itself tracks whether one of its normal format addresses is disposable or standard and acts accordingly.

It looks to me, upon a quick read, that SG would be in violation of this. Ofcourse that would be absurd and in a just world the patent office and courts would tell Apple to get lost.

However, the world of Intellectual Property can be absurd and unjust. Could someone smarter than I read this in detail and see if SG would be at risk? If so, I think I might need to send a letter to the patent office and Apple telling them they are taking a giant step backwards.

Yes, that box to notify me is checked!

I can prove that i used itunes with a Spamgourmet email back in 2009 if it helps.