Ridiculous patent claim, this is the problem with US Patent office handing out such obvious patents like this which can then be used to squeeze money out of other companies.
What a joke.
http://www.patentgenius.com/patent/8146126.html
a viewer of a cable television network enters an RequestForInformation input (1) to a digital set top box using a user remote. Based on this RFI input, the digital set top box transmits a data request (2) to an RFI data center. The RFI data center also receives asset data (3) from an asset database so as to associate the RFI input (1) with a particular asset. An RFI request (4) can then be transmitted to the appropriate asset provider. The asset provider can then provide a report such package of assets or follow-on information (5) back to the RFI data center. The RFI data center may then, in turn, provide the package of assets or follow-on information to a user data terminal, for example, of the cable television network viewer, via access through a web-portal or e-mail
Some say there's not one US Patent Office, but thousands since each patent examiner is different (possibly ranging from extremely tough to not even looking at the claims before granting).
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