Write Once Run Anywhere is one of thsoe software phrases that AppForge have been attacking with their CrossFire product. CrossFire allows .Net and Visual Basic code to be run on a number of PDA platforms (including Symbian and Palm). Their first patent, for "methods and systems for providing platform-independent shared software components for mobile devices" has just been award, with others pending (thanks to Symbian One for the link).

Full Press Release.

AppForge Awarded First Patent for Crossfire Product

Patent Validates Innovation Present Within Company’s Mobile Application Services Development Platform Product

ATLANTA – (January 13, 2006) – Today AppForge Inc., the leader in enterprise, multi-platform mobile and wireless application development solutions, has been awarded U.S. Patent 6,986,148 for its “methods and systems for providing platform-independent shared software components for mobile devices.”

The patent applies to the core functionality built into the company’s Crossfire Client product that enables platform-independent component architecture, enabling client software to have a wide variety of pieces of software work in unison as one application. It’s this underlying technology that enables AppForge to help customers develop single software applications that can operate on more than 500 variations of mobile device and operating system combinations.

“This first patent validates the innovation behind our Crossfire mobile application services development platform and Crossfire Client products,” says Chris Tyburski, Chief Technology Officer for AppForge and co-inventor on the patent. “There are a few alternatives in the marketplace that simulate what Crossfire does, but no other solution can replicate the processing efficiency and simplicity delivered from our platform. We are now able to protect our innovation and can prove that our solution is indeed one-of-a-kind.”

With this patent, AppForge is able to protect the core elements of the Crossfire Client, an essential component in the Crossfire mobile application services development platform. The intellectual property protected within the patent is the very basis of the product’s cross-platform functionality and what enables the product to work across platforms so quickly and effectively.

Although AppForge has other patents pending for Crossfire, this is the first patent that has been awarded to the company. For more detailed information from the United States Patent and Trademark Offices website regarding AppForge’s patent, please visit http://www.uspto.gov/ and search U.S. Patent 6,986,148 or visit AppForge’s website at http://www.appforge.com/ .