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Re: [Rival] Microsoft Sued by Patent Troll Over Mouse Design

On Jun 27, 9:06 pm, Roy Schestowitz <newsgro...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
> Microsoft sued over mouse
> ,----[ Quote ]
> | The writ, issued in a Texas district court two days back, alleges
> | that Microsoft, a co-defendant with Designer Appliances Inc,
> | breached patent number 5,576,733 called "Ergonomic Computer Mouse".

Microsoft will probably prevail in this case.  For one thing, the
similarities are so abstract that it almost defies comparison.  Jack
Lo's mouse actually looks pretty cool, and might be very popular, but
it's very different from the Microsoft mouse.

The patent is poorly researched, and doesn't include much prior art.
It didn't even reference the work done on the Xerox Alto back in the
late 1970s.

There was a similar design and approach for a "fist keyboard" that
also dates back to the very early 1980s.  He did refer back to several
Microsoft patents on mouse improvements.

> http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=40624
>
> Related:
>
> ,----[ Quote ]
> | Microsoft sang a very different tune in 1991. In a memo to his senior
> | executives, Bill Gates wrote, "If people had understood how patents would be
> | granted when most of today's ideas were invented, and had taken out patents,
> | the industry would be at a complete standstill today." Mr. Gates worried
> | that "some large company will patent some obvious thing" and use the patent
> | to "take as much of our profits as they want."

The reality is much worse.  In the case above, Jack Lo, an individual,
not working for
a company at all, filed for, and got patent 5,576,733, on an erganomic
"fist mouse".
He filed the application in 1994, and the patent was granted in 1996.
No working version,
poorly researched prior art, and yet the patent was granted.  If Lo
prevailed, he could
prevent Microsoft's sale of the mouse, and/or collect $millions, which
he could split with
his lawyers.

The problem is that even before the "Mouse", single handed devices
used for input into a computer by using a combination of motions and
button presses, had already been around.  Furthermore, the actual
function or definition of each button is strictly a function of
software.  Linux has definitions for a total of 16 signals, including
the 2 demensional mouse, and 2 dimensional rotation and zoom "wheels".

And of course, some of the great ideas listed in his patents, were
part of usenet discussions that had been taking place from the 1980s
to the early 1990s.  Unfortunately, Google's archive is incomplete for
postings prior to 1995.  Only about 5% of the postings to groups prior
to 1995  as actually archived.  I have a few tapes of almost 40,000
postings which Google has never archived.


> http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/09/opinion/09lee.html



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