U.S. Supreme Court to Weigh Standards for Patent "Obviousness"

[Damion Chaplin]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://news.com.com/2061-10796_3-6087946.html?part=rss&tag=6087946&subj=news' target='_blank'>http://news.com.com/2061-10796_3-6087946.html?part=rss&tag=6087946&subj=news</a><br /><br /></div><i>"The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday agreed to take up a case involving one of the thornier questions in patent law: What makes an invention "obvious"--and therefore unworthy of a patent? The case at issue involves patents covering "gas pedal" technology for cars and light trucks. It was accepted on appeal by a company called KSR International, Inc., which had been accused of patent infringement by a firm called Teleflex. Last January, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit reversed an earlier court decision last that found patents held by Teleflex were "obvious" and therefore invalid. But Silicon Valley firms, such as Microsoft and Cisco, have also taken an interest in the situation, which would have implications for patents across a wide range of industries."</i><br /><br />OK, it's a little off-topic, but may very well affect the outcome of various suits like the Apple vs. Creative spat. Should hierarchical menu systems, like those used by Creative and Apple, be patentable? Or are they just obvious inventions? In case you're wondering, 'obvious' is defined by federal patent law as something that a "person having ordinary skill in the art" would consider "obvious." That's pretty open to interperatation if you ask me. Many things seem obvious to me and not to others, even those having 'ordinary skill in the art'. What do you think? Should Apple be able to patent its menu system, even though tree-based interface navigation systems have been around for a very long time (think Windows Explorer)?

[Jason Dunn]

I'm no expert, but it seems to me that about 60% of all patents are utter nonsense.

[Damion Chaplin]

I agree.

'Member when Mr. Gates tried to copyright the word 'windows'? :lol:

[Felix Torres]

Should Apple be able to patent its menu system, even though tree-based interface navigation systems have been around for a very long time (think Windows Explorer)?

Well, any time you deal with lawyers common sense goes out the door and all that remains is smoke, mirrors, and (maybe) the letter of the law.

So, the first thing to keep in mind is that what is obvious in one arena is clearly patentable in another. Just because text-based menus were old in the CPM era for computers does not necessarily imply they are not an innovation in other products. (Or maybe it does; depends on which lawyer you have on your leash, er, retainer.) :twisted:

Seriously, context does matter, and applying techniques from one field to another is a perfectly legitimate innovation tool. Oftentimes there are many different procedures that can be used to carry out seeminly trivial tasks so even a simplistic idea can be presented as non-obvious within the context of dozens of alternatives.

Remember, too, that the social purpose of patents is to *force* disclosure of secret business processes and technologies in return for a limited ownership period. Problems arise both in the form of operations who patent trivialities as well as outfits that violate legitimate patents because it is cheaper to litigate and run the clock out on somebody else's creation than to pay for its use. Both happen, but the techie media only focuses on the former because of its built-in anti-IP biases. This is not a healthy situation for the long term.

To me the most amusing part of the Apple-Creative to-do isn't the originality/triviality of the menu system, but the fact that Apple tried to patent it and was turned down because somebody else had already patented it. So now they have to argue that something they tried to patent was not really patentable to start with. :lol:

Which is where the counter-suit originated, I guess; as an alternative way of putting pressure on Creative. I have to wonder, though, at what point Synaptics and the owners of the Rio IP are going to dig into this fight.

That's when the blood really starts flowing.