The U.S. has granted a patent (via) to a design company, Balthaser Online, for Rich Internet Applications, including AJAX, Flash and Java.

Reading the abstract in the actual patent closely, it seems to me they've only patented the creation of rich applications from over the Internet. Their main product, Balthaser:fx, is used to create Flash movies over the web. This seems to fit my interpretation. However, the news article I linked to suggests the patent might include all rich internet applications.

What does this mean for the web? Who knows. It'll be up to this company, and the U.S. courts, to decide what this patent includes and doesn't. Nonetheless, I think this is another great example of why software patents are total bullshit.