Apple wins major touchscreen patent

[hecatae]

http://t.co/9Thc4zv

techradar article today:


Apple has been granted a patent relating to the capacitive touchscreen it introduced on the original iPhone after three years of deliberation.
The patent basically gives Apple rights over the multitouch display and gestures used on its iPhone, iPad and iPod products.
That means that manufacturers of rival touchscreen products should probably put their lawyers on speed dial, as Apple is likely to come after them for licensing fees or pursue them on the basis of copyright infringement.


source pcmag article http://t.co/UeMfoGR


Some three-and-a-half years after filing for a patent on the iPhone, Apple on Tuesday was awarded U.S. patent number 7,966,578 for "[a] computer-implemented method, for use in conjunction with a portable multifunction device with a touch screen display, [that] comprises displaying a portion of page content, including a frame displaying a portion of frame content and also including other content of the page, on the touch screen display."

actual patent is here:

http://patft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=7,966,578.PN.&OS=PN/7,966,578&RS=PN/7,966,578

so I guess pinch to zoom will no longer be on any other device?

[miffed]

I am going to get slaughtered for this , but I do think this is fair !

For the best part of 10 years before the iPhone touchscreen phones existed - and during that period they stayed finger centric and resistive at one point

Then Apple launch their iPhone and use Capacitive , multi-touch for theirs

After 10 years its pretty clear that the incumbent offerings were never going to evolve to capacitve multi-touch / Pinch to zoom etc untill Apple rubbed their noses in it , and it WAS significant , it blew everyone away ,and of course everyone afterwards was kicking themselves , saying "Well , we could have done that ..... "
But you DIDN'T did you ? ... and if Apple hadn't shown you , you probably still wouldn't have !!!

Credit where credits due I say !

[hecatae]

it does relate mainly to the iphone ipod touch ios way of doing things. if you notice, WP7's Metro UI does not copy Apple IOS at all

[Hands0n]

I'm with Miffed and Apple on this one. Its all very well after the event to say "we could have done that ...." but they clearly didn't until forced to by competition. And isn't that what competition is all about, doing better than others?

Why is alright for everyone else to have patents except Apple? Can't use pinch to zoom? Then come up with something different. Innovate damn you!

[gorilla]

I think you'll find I was using pinch to zoom long before apple came along (well actually, I was born after Apple). I have used those very gestures for many years. Ok, they might not have been on a capacitive screen but I think this patent send out a warning to the industry. We could see people patenting handshakes, winks, nods and anything motion related.
Yes, I know the patent relates to how the fingers touch the screen, but I'm not sure how good this is for the user if Apple starts going after anyone for using this. I would like to think that if Android infringes on the patent that google would immediately licence it (given the chance).

[miffed]

But would Apple just go after people for this , or is it just a case of building an arsenal of patents for defence ? - sort of like a legal MAD principle ?

[Ben]

I wish the US would stop granting so many damn patents.

Yes, kudos to Apple for inventing this, but that's where it ends IMHO. If it's easy for other people to reproduce then it really wasn't that much of an invention. It gave them a big enough head start to become the mobile industries most profitable player by a long, long way, do they really need a patent to let them stifle the competition for years to come?

From what I've read online the patent isn't too overbearing, however, and I hope it can protect the uniqueness of the iPhone from obvious copycats while allowing the competition to innovate.

I don't think Apple are going to start a patent war on this. But they may well seek royalties from certain players, and the odd one might get a whack with the legal stick.

[3GScottishUser]

Talk is that Apple might be able to make some revenue out of this if they are sensible and make it reasonable. If they dont and try to prevent others using the technology which is now widespread they run the risk of the patent being withdrawn to protect comeptition.

Over to you Apple..... (and remember where you got the idea for the original GUI Mac computer from.... Xerox Parc.... and you paid Xerox nothing!)

[Hands0n]

If anyone remembers those days the technology businesses were much more altruistic than they are today. It is only through such altruism that we find ourselves where we are today. Had the Banks, venture capitalists and finance directors been involved we'd still be in the dark ages. Everyone borrowed from everybody else.

These days it is pretty much all about the money. And the patent lawyers are set to get very rich, as will the patent holders if they license their technology. Maybe that is fair enough. But I do hanker after those previous times where it was all exciting, new and just beginning.

Right now, the brave new frontier appears to be everyone suing everyone else for patent infringement. Without regulatory intervention we could see the stifling of technology as we know it.

[Ben]

I suppose I will acknowledge that these are patents that Apple actively uses. I can't abide the companies that hold these ridiculous patents, often by buying them in, and then try and sue world+dog for the very existence of hyperlinks, or a button within an app that can be used to make a purchase!

Invent it, patent it, use it - or lose it! That'd be my world order ;)

[3GScottishUser]

The trouble with patents like this one is that they cover what is really a generic function. Finger movements are what makes a touch screen work and enhancing that with some embedded recognition of specific movements seems a fairly natural development. Pinching to enlarge etc is now second nature on touch screens not only on phones but on computer displays etc. I doubt if there would be a great hardship if a user had to press a specific soft area of the screen to perform the same function and in fact that is an option on many displays already.

Protect innovation by all means with patents but allowing companies to patent generic fuctionality stifles competiton and development which does nobody any good.

Thinking back to Xerox Parc where they pateneted almost nothing yet invented, WYSIWYG, GUIs, Mouse, Laser Printers, Ethernet and most of the components of the 'paperless office'.

[Hands0n]

The trouble is that in these modern times patents have to be brought. Otherwise there are the bottom-feeding scum companies that patent stuff and then sue other companies that are now technically in breach of the patent registration. And that becomes their sole business, means of income, that being litigation. I'm sure a lot of us will recall SCO who are now nothing more than a litigation vehicle. Oracle are in some danger of heading that way also, although I'm not suggesting that will become their exclusive business.

I think Apple are on reasonably sound ground to patent to keep the concept away from the litigation scumwads - but I also think they should be altruistic in the sense that these hand gestures are entirely natural and should be open to the masses to use, just not abuse. Otherwise, if this becomes too granular then we'll be in a veritable hell of having to adjust to each specific manufacturer's brand of technology. Treat gestures like we treat other I/O devices such as Keyboards.

[miffed]

The trouble with patents like this one is that they cover what is really a generic function. Finger movements are what makes a touch screen work and enhancing that with some embedded recognition of specific movements seems a fairly natural development.

But it simply wasn't happening ! 7 years of progression of Windows CE / Pocket PC / Palm or any other enviroment showed the merest hint of even encouraging finger over stlyus use ! let alone finger gestures - yet as soon as the iPhone dropped everyone else was falling over themselves to provide finger friendly enviroments !
Just because in retrospect it was the obvious thing to do , doesnt' negate the fact that no one had the thought of foresight to do it , and now it is the "norm" (June 2007 was like a switch being flicked !) is testament to the fact that if indeed was a BREAKTHROUGH , REVOLUTIONARY APPLICATION OF TECH , that Apple SHOULD get credit and recognition for.

"We would have got there anyway" is simply BS in my book !

[Hands0n]

Yes, I think that this specific instance illustrates very graphically the role and place for disruptors in our world. Left to their own devices the older, tired, manufacturers will keep repeating the same old same old. With each iteration donning the emperors new clothes and telling us all how great and grand their product really is. Then along comes some upstart, never done this before, and truly innovates. The mass panic is almost comical to watch as the "legacy" firms huff and puff but eventually do their utmost to copy the disruptor.

We have seen this with Apple who have pretty much stamped smartphone in the psyche of probably every single human being on this planet. We have seen this with lots of other smaller and leaner entrants to established markets. The legacy giants do not like these and try to stamp them out by marketing force or ridicule (I'm thinking Nokia giving the big diss to Google a couple of years back - not laughing now, are they?).

History repeats.

[hecatae]

http://fosspatents.blogspot.com/2011/06/samsung-files-itc-complaint-against.html


The combination of the accused products and the defendant means that Samsung is asking for an import ban against the iPhone, iPad and iPod. If the ITC agrees to investigate such a complaint (which is pretty certain to happen here), a final decision is reached within 16 to 18 months.

I'm enjoying this, itc complaint is here in full http://info.usitc.gov/sec/dockets.nsf/9398c30a938aa5ad85256f19007790c3/98b3398cb6bc0f98852578bd00731b23?OpenDocument