News - Apple granted patent for disappearing scroll bar and more

[HEXUS]

As per usual, it only took the US patent system five years to approve.

Read more.

[crossy]

Perhaps a dark day for Android and other modern smartphone operating systems

Not just for Android either - the Ubuntu Unity interface I'm sitting in front of at the moment also does this.

Likewise, Apple has also been granted patents covering many aspects of the modern touch-screen UI including blogging, camera, email, telephone, video player, notes calendar, browser, widgets, search, maps and most importantly, a multi-touch interface, covering lists and navigation.

Though we can't vouch for the US courts however, back in 2007, this writer remembers playing with the idea of scroll-bars that vanished when the mouse was moved away in websites (and remembering that for a mouse this was very annoying!). Likewise, though certainly there are a few touch button placements with questionable similarity to Android, the patent covering list navigation appears very much a natural touch extension of a Windows Vista task-bar or thumbnail display on a PC, with a vanishing top-bar rather like the vanishing start bar, only with a different context for its activation.

And therein lies my problem with Apple's actions - these aren't Apple innovations ... it's merely that while everyone else seems to have been content to just accept them as general, Apple runs to their friends in the USPTO and gets them patented. To me that's tantamount to stealing.

When will this madness end?

Amen to that! There's a thread on xda where the author is saying the same thing - and suggesting that perhaps the Open Handset Alliance should maybe be throwing a few patent-based bunker busters Apple's way as a method of getting them to "play fair". Perhaps just before the iPhone5 launch would be a good time to do this - after all, Apple's done the same to Samsung, so it's hardly an underhand trick.

[kopite]

I`ve never been an apple fan but back at the beginning they where innovative. Now they are more interested with stifling the market.

THey are happy to rip off features from other os (see notification bar) but when another company use something they do they sue.

[TheAnimus]

But I was using something like this on my HTC Touch!

[capt_cornflake]

But I was using something like this on my HTC Touch!

Which was released in June 2007 according to wikipedia.
Not sure on the exact timing of the Patent application (also 2007), but there's a chance it was prior to this.

[jnutt]

I reckon they (Apple) would dearly love to patent the touch screen phone.

[HalloweenJack]

wonder what windows and metro thinks about this....

[funke_munke]

When you're the only stock in the US with a genuine upward trend, you tend to get what you want.

I'll never buy another Apple product.

This is stupid.

[AGTDenton]

When you're the only stock in the US with a genuine upward trend, you tend to get what you want.

I'll never buy another Apple product.

This is stupid.

The only problem is, like in the case of HTC, money from every handset is going to Microsoft. So unfortunately whatever the consumer tries to do is ultimately going to be a waste of time.

[Hicks12]

Another terrible corrupt day in the patent industry... wonder when Googles notification patent will be passed, probably wont ever be accepted as Apple are now using the same idea (stole..). The good thing is though that Apple is actually going after everyone in the market with this patent, everyone uses this idea as its a common advancement to minimise space on a small form factor! This means that the big boys like Microsoft, Google, Motorola, Nokia, Samsung etc etc will certainly be giving a MASSIVE beating to Apple, something along the lines of Avengers Assemble they should really join up and destroy this anticompetitive stealing company.

Come to think of it i believe i actually used a few phones that already did it many many moons ago, like before this patent application. It does do my nut in seeing all these pointless patents, I thought the whole idea for patents was for genuine innovation, you know stuff like inventing the toaster to have toasted bread instead of using the grill, that would be patentable but you wouldnt/shouldnt be allowed to put in a patent after the toaster was invented/produced stating that you are going to make a toaster with 2 slots! Thats not innovation thats just advancement .

[Biscuit]

This means that the big boys like Microsoft, Google, Motorola, Nokia, Samsung etc etc will certainly be giving a MASSIVE beating to Apple, something along the lines of Avengers Assemble

Kinda like this?

[3930k]

Those mother$%U£%&%

[Hicks12]

Hahaha yes biscuit, very good part . Apples going after everyone and they should know that combined they have far superior patents and I dont think apple can push them any further without some serious retaliation, be getting the popcorn ready for the next quarter .

[crossy]

The only problem is, like in the case of HTC, money from every handset is going to Microsoft. So unfortunately whatever the consumer tries to do is ultimately going to be a waste of time.

Hmm, I make a distinction between Microsoft's actions and Apple's. First off, Microsoft's patents seem to be around things that they probably did have a reasonable claim to - e.g. FAT filesystem.

Secondly, the fact that they (MS) offer license terms (and from what I'm understanding, the terms are not unreasonable) screams "IP protection" to me. If you accept the validity of MS's patents, then surely it's fair that they'd seek redress if someone uses the tech in that patent.

Apple on the other hand are patenting stuff that others have either already done before or are widely taken as de facto standards. Then when someone launches a product that "infringes" it's a case of "you can't do that" - no attempt to offer license terms equals "market share protection" in my mind.

For me, the really annoying thing (other than the sheer volume of these persecutions) is that: they(Apple) ... don't ... need ... to ... do ... this. They've got a humongous share of smartphone market, the tablet market is pretty much "theirs" at the moment, and apart from a few oddballs, there's few other MP3/MP4 players out there (I know, I was looking for one recently - Cowon don't work on 64bit OS's, Sony seem to be scaling back, forget Creative, Samsung are in mid-model change, etc).

If I had a HTC device then I'd feel "uncomfortable" with paying for the license to MS, but I'd understand it, and since it's not a huge chunk o' change then that discomfort wouldn't last long. Apple on the other hand, I'm less forgiving of - I feel disinclined to either buy their products or recommend them to others at the moment.

[Biscuit]

Cowon don't work on 64bit OS's, Sony seem to be scaling back, forget Creative, Samsung are in mid-model change, etc).

I have a Cowon S9 and it works fine on 64bit windows :/

[keithwalton]

The person reviewing the patent application really should look at whats changed since the application was made and decide that because world + dog uses it now that the patent shouldn't be granted and then used retrospectively against people.
If you're going to patent something have the patent granted before you show it off to the world.