It's remarkable that companies can "own" things so fundamental, and obvious in computing--even if they don't actually utilize their IP's.

"Hey guys, I've got a patent for talking from one machine to another over a connection." (Don't give SCO any ideas.)

The purpose of patents was to foster innovation, not squander it.

What if Issac Newton and Liebniz had a "foundation" that owned the rights to every mathematical construct they discovered? How would the world function if we had to pay that foundation fees every time we used Newton's method, or Calculus? It'd be complete bureaucratic hell.

And further, coming from another angle, I bet you money there are prior implementations of P2P chat long before... 2005.