> i.e. this patent from December 2002

That's a patent application, not a patent.  That application has received 
a "final rejection" from the U.S. patent office (Microsoft is appealing, 
but so far their attempts at arguing the merits of the application have 
not been successful).  You can browse the relevant documents at

http://portal.uspto.gov/external/portal/pair

(The application number is 10/307,902).

Jeff Arnold
jbarnold@mit.edu
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