Apple granted "mother of all smartphone patents" - Canadian TV, Computing and Home Theatre Forums

99semaj · 2012-07-19, 09:22 PM

Quote:

FORTUNE -- Both sides of the smartphone wars agree that the 25 patents granted Apple (AAPL) on Tuesday contain some powerful legal weapons.
One patent in particular -- No. 8,223,134: "Portable electronic device, method, and graphical user interface for displaying electronic lists and documents" -- stands out.
It encompasses the user interfaces Apple designed for blogging, e-mail, telephone, camera, video player, calendar, browser, widgets, search, notes, maps and most importantly, a multi-touch interface.

This basically covers any touchscreen with swipe gestures. Doh!

It'll most certainly be considered a FRAND patent, but it will force a lot of royalties from Android and Windows8 OEMs.

jayoldschool · 2012-07-19, 10:01 PM

Back to the stylus!

Spike4881 · 2012-07-19, 10:08 PM

Does this mean that Apple (and Microsoft by extension) will now pay royalties to Xerox for the gui and mouse that they stole from PARC?

JohnnyCanuck · 2012-07-19, 10:13 PM

The patent is actually much narrower than the first commentators would have you believe.

I also really wonder about the value of a patent system that would give Apple a patent for something in which at least 95% of the content is prior art. Not meant as a partisan comment, but Apple deserves credit for bringing all this disparate technology together in a single cool package using a sensitive enough screen, but this crap should never be approved by the US patent office.

99semaj · 2012-07-19, 11:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Spike4881

Does this mean that Apple (and Microsoft by extension) will now pay royalties to Xerox for the gui and mouse that they stole from PARC?

Nope, because Xerox invited Apple to PARC and showed the product, essentially releasing the idea to the public domain. THat's the way intellectual property law works.

Quote:

Originally Posted by JohnnyCanuck

...but Apple deserves credit for bringing all this disparate technology together in a single cool package using a sensitive enough screen, but this crap should never be approved by the US patent office.

Notwithstanding that the US patent system is rotten to the core, I think Apple actually did innovate in this case...they took touch screens and added significant functionality in their swipe gestures. I believe they acquired a company to do it.

JamesK · 2012-07-20, 08:15 AM

^^^^
The U.S. patent system is indeed often the cause of this problem. There have been many patents issued that shouldn't have been, due to prior art or obviousness. There was one case recently where Apple lost because the patent should never have been issued. One example is where they're claiming they invented scroll bars on a portable electronic device. They filed the patent application on March 5, yet there were scroll bars on the Palm III I had years ago and scroll bars had been used on computers long before that. Even ignoring that Palm and other portable devices, how does using scrolling on a portable device make it a new invention, when it had been in use on computers for years?

james99 · 2012-07-20, 09:10 AM

Let's face the patent system is a mess. Even in Jobs bio, he's proud of being a "thief".

2012-07-19, 10:08 PM	#3
Spike4881 Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: Winnipeg Posts: 254	Does this mean that Apple (and Microsoft by extension) will now pay royalties to Xerox for the gui and mouse that they stole from PARC? __________________ Panasonic TC-P50G10 - Sony HT-CT150 - Sony PS3 Slim 250gb - Nintendo Wii - WD TV Live

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2012-07-19, 10:01 PM	#2
jayoldschool Veteran Join Date: Feb 2007 Posts: 1,746	Back to the stylus!

2012-07-19, 10:13 PM	#4
JohnnyCanuck Moderator Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Vancouver, BC Posts: 4,645	The patent is actually much narrower than the first commentators would have you believe. I also really wonder about the value of a patent system that would give Apple a patent for something in which at least 95% of the content is prior art. Not meant as a partisan comment, but Apple deserves credit for bringing all this disparate technology together in a single cool package using a sensitive enough screen, but this crap should never be approved by the US patent office.

2012-07-20, 08:15 AM	#6
JamesK Veteran Join Date: May 2009 Location: Mississauga Posts: 5,039	^^^^ The U.S. patent system is indeed often the cause of this problem. There have been many patents issued that shouldn't have been, due to prior art or obviousness. There was one case recently where Apple lost because the patent should never have been issued. One example is where they're claiming they invented scroll bars on a portable electronic device. They filed the patent application on March 5, yet there were scroll bars on the Palm III I had years ago and scroll bars had been used on computers long before that. Even ignoring that Palm and other portable devices, how does using scrolling on a portable device make it a new invention, when it had been in use on computers for years?

2012-07-20, 09:10 AM	#7
james99 Moderator Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Burlington Posts: 24,791	Let's face the patent system is a mess. Even in Jobs bio, he's proud of being a "thief".