06-05-2004, 07:00 PM
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Swami
Join Date: Feb 2004
Posts: 4,303
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Microsoft Patents Double HW Button Clicks on PDAs
Following on from the tale of 'Patent Trolls', comes this story from the Inquirer:
"The US Patent and Trademark Office has granted patent number 6,727,830 for a "time based hardware button for application launch" to Microsoft. It is a process which is familiar to anyone who uses the Redmond giant's Windows or set the time on a wrist based sun dial...the move has sparked a bit of a ruckus in the US technology industry where the Patent and Trademark Office has been accused of giving patents for things that are too obvious or been on the market for a long time."
No, really?  The background to this patent application here, reads as follows:
"There is thus an increased demand for substantially smaller palm-type computers that are able to run business applications of less complexity than those designed to run on a desktop computer and enable a user to quickly access all types of personal and business related data, such as addresses, telephone numbers, scheduled appointment times, etc. One such palm-type computer is Microsoft's Palm-size PC."
You heard it here first. We need to rename the site to "Palm-size PC Thoughts" � fast! :wink: So � thoughts on this patent?
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06-05-2004, 07:36 PM
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Mystic
Join Date: Nov 2006
Posts: 1,887
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I would be more concerned over invalid patents if it weren't for the fact that most of the whiners are folks who spend their time and effort "innovating" by reverse-engineering someone else's product. And whose prescription for fixing the "massive" problem of frivolous patents is to abolish patents altogether.
Yeah, right...
Notice that Intel doesn't complain about frivolous patent lawsuits?
Neither does IBM or Microsoft or Sony or Xerox.
After all, *they* do original work and own thousands of patents and if they infrige on somebody's patent they know they'll pay. The cost of litigation is part of doing business these days.
MS got hit with a $500 million verdict; they're fighting it.
In court, not in the media.
Do *they* complain about the system?
No, they just go and patent all the stuff they created and make sure their stockholders get some kind of return on their investment.
This is a case where the hype is bigger than the problem and the prescription worse than the disease.
As always, it pays to ask: "whose ox is getting gored?"
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06-05-2004, 07:48 PM
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5000+ Posts? I Should OWN This Site!
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 5,133
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Felix Torres
Notice that Intel doesn't complain about frivolous patent lawsuits?
Neither does IBM or Microsoft or Sony or Xerox.
After all, *they* do original work and own thousands of patents and if they infrige on somebody's patent they know they'll pay. The cost of litigation is part of doing business these days.
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Part of that, also, is that a lot of times big patent holders don't have to pay other big patent holders. "If you let me use your patents, I'll let you use mine."
It's more annoying for, say, small PPC developers that maybe wrote a utility that has different functions happen on a tap vs. tap-n-hold vs. double tap, etc. It seemed like a natural thing for them to include, because the OS and dev tools supported doing that. So Microsoft provided, in their compilation tools, the ability to do it, and didn't say "but don't use this or we'll sue you". So now what? Do these little developers have to pay Microsoft license fees? For cheap or even free software?
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06-05-2004, 07:52 PM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 160
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Re: Microsoft Patents Double Clicks on PDAs
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Originally Posted by Jonathon Watkins
One such palm-type computer is Microsoft's Palm-size PC."
You heard it here first. We need to rename the site to "Palm-size PC Thoughts" � fast! :wink: So � thoughts on this patent?
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I would guess that the term "Palm-size PC" comes from the original application: "This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 09/226,031, filed Jan. 5, 1999"
When was Microsoft forced to change the name to "Pocket PC"?
:devilboy: :devilboy: :devilboy:
__________________
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Common Sense is Not Common
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06-05-2004, 08:07 PM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Mar 2006
Posts: 137
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Re: Microsoft Patents Double Clicks on PDAs
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Originally Posted by Gen-M
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Jonathon Watkins
One such palm-type computer is Microsoft's Palm-size PC."
You heard it here first. We need to rename the site to "Palm-size PC Thoughts" � fast! :wink: So � thoughts on this patent?
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I would guess that the term "Palm-size PC" comes from the original application: "This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 09/226,031, filed Jan. 5, 1999"
When was Microsoft forced to change the name to "Pocket PC"?
:devilboy: :devilboy: :devilboy: |
Good point. But MS being the sneaky devils they are had to do something to draw the distinction away from Palm. :devilboy: If MS was going to drag their feet and let Palm have full market share, they wouldn't mind riding their coat tells, and using the same name. It's all about the marketing. And now they're called windows mobile devices. with the possibility of OQO devices emerging that are true "pocket pc's" (if they ever leap from vaporware :lol: ).
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06-05-2004, 09:16 PM
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5000+ Posts? I Should OWN This Site!
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 5,616
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From the original email:
Quote:
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The patent only applies to handheld computers that run Microsoft's PocketPC software and is specific to the technique of opening different features depending on how many times a button is pressed.
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This makes it sound not nearly as far-reaching.
__________________
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06-05-2004, 09:34 PM
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Pupil
Join Date: May 2004
Posts: 16
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The implications are very interesting for long-term hardware changes....but this is old news.
It was originally reported by Slashdot and SmartMobileAssets more than a month ago.
Check out http://smartmobileassets.com/cgi-bin...s,m=1083244893.
Regards,
RobertS
IT Pros Moderator
SmartMobileAssets
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06-05-2004, 10:51 PM
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Swami
Join Date: Feb 2004
Posts: 4,303
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Thank you for your kind words RobertS. Funnily enough, we can't post on news we don't know about. :wink: The Inquirer put up a story about this last night, I spotted it this morning and posted on it as PPC news.
(The link you provided gives a fatal error btw: "Cannot open the message data file: 1083244893..txt")
I assume you mean their Microsoft Patent Watch thread?
We can only post on what we see, or what our reader send us in.... (hint, hint) :wink:
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06-05-2004, 11:03 PM
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Philosopher
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 541
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Felix Torres
I would be more concerned over invalid patents if it weren't for the fact that most of the whiners are folks who spend their time and effort "innovating" by reverse-engineering someone else's product. And whose prescription for fixing the "massive" problem of frivolous patents is to abolish patents altogether.
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Talk about trolling. Care to provide any backup for that? No, Slashdot doesn't count, since thats the only place where I've heard a significant population want to abolish the patent system.
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06-05-2004, 11:39 PM
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Sage
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 607
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apple: part faded windows
microsoft: tapping the screen two times
linix: the word free...you can have it...but pay me for my "free" word
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Linear Mode
