I guess the whole "prior art" thing is just passé down at the patent office - some clown claims to have invented "rich media applications delivered over the internet", and the PTO was just stupid enough to believe him. Here's what the bozo, a guy named Neil Balthaser, claims to have invented:

The patent issued on Valentine’s Day covers all rich-media technology implementations, including Flash, Flex, Java, Ajax, and XAML, when the rich-media application is accessed on any device over the Internet, including desktops, mobile devices, set-top boxes, and video game consoles, says inventor Neil Balthaser, CEO of Balthaser Online, which he owns with his father Ken. “You can consider it a pioneering or umbrella patent. The broader claim is one that basically says that if you got a rich Internet application, it is covered by this patent.”

I think I'll go patent the process of collecting money in exchange for goods. Now that prior art has been abandoned as a requirement, I'm sure that the PTO will grant it. Then I can play the game of "shake down rich companies for work I didn't do" just like this guy. He filed the patent in 2001. Gee, I think JavaScript predates that by just a bit.

Oh, here's the actual patent.