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Can't Android makers/users (Google, B&N, etc) beat MS at their own game
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DFS
Feb 11, 2012, 9:35:30 AM2/11/12
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One of the patents MS claims against B&N is #6,339,780 dated Jan 12, 2002.
"Loading status in a hypermedia browser having a limited available
display area"
http://www.google.com/patents/US6339780
I'm all for software patents, but this one looks sucky: show an
[animated] icon while data is loading. What else are you going to show?
In my opinion it should never have been patented because it's
extremely trivial and obvious to any developer. Long before 2002 I was
showing animated icons and images and progress bars while data was
loading (ironically within my Microsoft Access apps). Surely other
small-screen systems did the same thing? There had to be prior art,
even on other mobile devices.
The patent is very specific in its 42 claims, but several look to be
easy to overcome:
"3. A hypermedia browser as recited in claim 1, wherein the temporary
graphic clement indicates to a user that the browser is loading content."
Use the word 'Searching...' or 'Retrieving...'?
5. A hypermedia browser as recited in claim 1, wherein the temporary
graphic element is animated.
Show a static graphic with a numeric countdown?
Would altering Android trivially so it does 2 or 3 things differently
remove the infringement?
"Loading status in a hypermedia browser having a limited available
display area"
http://www.google.com/patents/US6339780
I'm all for software patents, but this one looks sucky: show an
[animated] icon while data is loading. What else are you going to show?
In my opinion it should never have been patented because it's
extremely trivial and obvious to any developer. Long before 2002 I was
showing animated icons and images and progress bars while data was
loading (ironically within my Microsoft Access apps). Surely other
small-screen systems did the same thing? There had to be prior art,
even on other mobile devices.
The patent is very specific in its 42 claims, but several look to be
easy to overcome:
"3. A hypermedia browser as recited in claim 1, wherein the temporary
graphic clement indicates to a user that the browser is loading content."
Use the word 'Searching...' or 'Retrieving...'?
5. A hypermedia browser as recited in claim 1, wherein the temporary
graphic element is animated.
Show a static graphic with a numeric countdown?
Would altering Android trivially so it does 2 or 3 things differently
remove the infringement?
bbgruff
Feb 11, 2012, 10:51:48 AM2/11/12
to
On Saturday 11 February 2012 14:35 DFS wrote:
> Would altering Android trivially so it does 2 or 3 things differently
> remove the infringement?
Maybe, but you perhaps need to bear in mind what B&N claim that Microsoft
> Would altering Android trivially so it does 2 or 3 things differently
> remove the infringement?
said to them:-
“And what they basically told us was, it doesn’t matter if you have
defenses, whether you don’t infringe, whether our patents are invalid,
you’re going to need to take a license, because there’s no way that you can
get out of our grasp, that we have so many patents that we could overwhelm
you.”
Homer
Feb 11, 2012, 7:40:14 PM2/11/12
to
Verily I say unto thee that bbgruff spake thusly:
DooFy seems to have overlooked the obvious fact that Microsoft's "own
game" is ... racketeering.
Not only is it incredibly difficult for a racketeering victim to beat
the much more powerful racketeer at his own game, but that would then
make the victim just as morally reprehensible, if not also criminally
culpable.
--
K. | "You see? You cannot kill me. There is no flesh
http://slated.org | and blood within this cloak to kill. There is
Fedora 8 (Werewolf) on šky | only an idea. And ideas are bulletproof."
kernel 2.6.31.5, up 9 days | ~ V for Vendetta.
game" is ... racketeering.
Not only is it incredibly difficult for a racketeering victim to beat
the much more powerful racketeer at his own game, but that would then
make the victim just as morally reprehensible, if not also criminally
culpable.
--
K. | "You see? You cannot kill me. There is no flesh
http://slated.org | and blood within this cloak to kill. There is
Fedora 8 (Werewolf) on šky | only an idea. And ideas are bulletproof."
kernel 2.6.31.5, up 9 days | ~ V for Vendetta.
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