Apple Seeks Patent On iPod Interface

[Kent Pribbernow]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://news.com.com/2100-1041_3-5181088.html?tag=nefd_top' target='_blank'>http://news.com.com/2100-1041_3-5181088.html?tag=nefd_top</a><br /><br /></div>In an effort to protect its intellectual property and thwart impostors, Apple is attempting to patent the much acclaimed iPod user interface. <br /><br />"In a patent application 20040055446, published Thursday, Apple describes a graphical user interface "and methods of use thereof in a multimedia player." The patent application refers to a hierarchically ordered graphical user interface and lists Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs as one of three inventors, along with Jeffrey L. Robbin and Timothy Wasko."<br /><br />With the rampant success of the iPod, I don't blame Apple for wanting to stave off copy cats. I've seen some MP3 players that had...shall we say..suspiciously familiar interfaces. :scatter: <br /><img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/3ipod.jpg" />

[Janak Parekh]

Perhaps, but read the abstract:

"In a portable multimedia device, a method, apparatus, and system for providing user supplied configuration data are described. In one embodiment, a hierarchically ordered graphical user interface are provided. A first order, or home, interface provides a highest order of user selectable items each of which, when selected, results in an automatic transition to a lower order user interface associated with the selected item. In one of the described embodiments, the lower order interface includes other user selectable items associated with the previously selected item from the higher order user interface."

:pukeface:

--janak

[dartman]

This is an absurd request. How can they claim a heirarchal menu as unique?


dart

[Kent Pribbernow]

Well Adobe patented the concept of floating pallet window, and won a patent infringement case against rival Macromedia.

[Tim Williamson]

Uh...yeah so does that mean Windows Explorer (File Explorer) would be a patent infringement? And would FAT or NTFS file systems also fall under this? This calls for a republishing of my patent haiku. ;)

So many patents
We drown in a flood of them
Where's our common sense???!!!

[Lee Yuan Sheng]

Didn't MS claim FAT royalties against memory card makers?

Hehe, nice haiku.

[Crocuta]

If they're trying to protect their interface from copycats, then copyright is the correct instrument. This is nothing but a grab for money. First they'll write the language in a vague way, but in the context of the iPod, then the day after it's awarded, they'll contact every company that makes any type of UI (since ALL are hierarchical) and demand royalties. You know it's always ticked off Jobs that Gates came in and made a fortune by stealing the UI that Jobs stole from Park/Xerox, but if he's successful with this patent, then he'll finally get the last laugh. Unfortunately, with the sorry state of patent law in this country, he may well succeed.