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Can Apple’s Multi-Touch Patent Withstand Scrutiny — or Challenge?
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| When the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued patent number 7,479,949 for
| a “touch screen device, method, and graphical user interface for determining
| commands by applying heuristics,” eyebrows shot up throughout the industry.
| On first glance, it seemed that Apple had locked down the concept of a
| multi-touch interface, posing problems for Palm and anyone else who might
| want to compete with the iPhone, iTouch, and future products. But some more
| careful consideration suggests that the patent may not be as broad as it
| seems — and Apple may have missed including some seminal prior art, at least
| some of which was known to the inventors. That could cause spell problems in
| trying to enforce the patent.
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http://industry.bnet.com/technology/1000741/can-apples-multi-touch-patent-withstand-scrutiny-or-challenge/
Recent:
Apple's View On Patents Then And Now
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| For all the talk among patent system defenders about how patents are most
| necessary for young startup companies that need to grow, most tech startups
| couldn't care much less about patents (other than as a bogus currency to
| increase their valuation in talking to VCs). Startups are focused on actually
| building a product and getting it out to the market. Instead, what we see
| time and time again is that it's the big, more established companies that use
| patents to stifle startups, rather than the other way around. Startups
| innovate, while big companies litigate.
|
| [...]
|
| The company was incredibly open in sharing ideas and concepts, and wasn't
| going around threatening others for ripping off its IP (that did come
| later... especially with the graphical user interface, which Jobs himself
| admitted "ripping off" from Xerox... which had "ripped it off" already from
| SRI). It's really only when you're afraid of competing in the marketplace
| that you rely on patents. When you're young and innovative you focus on the
| possibilities and opportunities in front of you, rather than on ways to block
| others from innovating.
`----
http://techdirt.com/articles/20090129/0331363567.shtml
Analyst Says What We Already Knew: Apple's Multi-Touch Patent Fight Won't Help
Its Business
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| After Palm showed off its new Pre smartphone, including the device's
| multitouch interface, at the Consumer Electronics Show last month, Apple made
| some threatening noises about how it would go after anybody who "ripped off"
| its intellectual property. As always, we didn't see how this would benefit
| anybody in the marketplace, since competition pays benefits to consumers, and
| drives participants, even Apple, to continually innovate and improve their
| products. Now, a wireless industry analyst has called Apple's threats into
| question. He makes the point that a long, drawn out IP fight won't help
| Apple's business in the long run: "Building on the company's legacy as one of
| the greatest innovators in the technology industry may be a smarter business
| model than taking on the rest of the industry in a battle that may be
| impossible to win."
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http://techdirt.com/articles/20090202/1203253611.shtml
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