After two-and-a-half years of research, the U.S. Patent Office Monday granted McAfee.com (Nasdaq: MCAF) an exclusive patent for its system of securing, optimizing and managing PCs over the Internet.

The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based online security firm says it received patent #6,266,774 for its technology invention. Company CTO, Chandrasekar Balasubramaniam; Babu Katchapalayam and Ravi KannanThe are named as the inventors of this patent.

The McAfee.com patent covers the "software-as-a-service" technology and subscription-based business model for delivering security, maintenance, and optimization services to Internet users around the globe. But, the company says what it really holds is a patent on the future of the Internet.

"As an early pioneer in this area, this patent further reinforces our belief that the future lies in software applications being delivered online as Web services to users around the world," says McAfee.com co-inventor and president and CEO Srivats Sampath. "This patent also reinforces our first mover advantage by securing our foothold in this space."

The patent encompasses the ability to deliver software written within a markup language (HTML/XML) and delivered over a logical Internet connection to a browser, which then executes scripts to automatically perform one or more tasks on a computer.

Some examples of how the patent works include the detection and removal of viruses, searching for software and data that needs to be upgraded, upgrade of software and data, archival of software and data and hardware and software diagnostics.

McAfee.com reports more than 1,000,000 paid subscribers to its service and regularly has more than 800,000 visitors each day. The company has recently experienced a jump in site traffic due to the spread of the Code Red worms, the SirCam virus and other online security threats.

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