MS patented click and double-click
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The patent covers a) only a button that oepns an application b) various possibilities to modify the startup behavior (such as opening a new document, start recording, running a user-defined action etc.) depending on how the button is pressed [edit]c) only "limited resource computing devices"
we are here to help each other get through this thing, whatever it is Vonnegut jr.
sighist || Agile Programming | doxygen -
While silly, I have yet to hear of an instance where MS used a patent to bully someone in court (does anyone have any links?). I think MS is doing alot of defensive patenting - which is a strong indication of how f'ed up our patent office is. MS is, I think, scared of another 'web browser plugin' patent being shoved in their face by a company that does nothing more than buy patents and sue companies. -- Russell Morris "So, broccoli, mother says you're good for me... but I'm afraid I'm no good for you!" - Stewy
There was a discussion about this on /. some time back. Basically, defensive patents are completely pointless. You know how you defend against patents? Make sure any prior art it published as soon as possible. Yeah, the USPTO - being full of lazy dumbasses - will probably grant a patent to someone else (who spent quite a bit of money filing for the patent and for up-keep) but making sure that prior art is published is how you defend against the patent.
Microsoft MVP, Visual C# My Articles
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There was a discussion about this on /. some time back. Basically, defensive patents are completely pointless. You know how you defend against patents? Make sure any prior art it published as soon as possible. Yeah, the USPTO - being full of lazy dumbasses - will probably grant a patent to someone else (who spent quite a bit of money filing for the patent and for up-keep) but making sure that prior art is published is how you defend against the patent.
Microsoft MVP, Visual C# My Articles
I agree - the outcome will be the same. But there is still the legal cost to the defense process that companies are going to try and mitigate. I'm willing to bet that companies have determined (correctly or not) that it costs less to maintain a 'defense' patent portfolio than it does to provide an affirmative defense of prior art everytime some jackass company-of-patent-lawyers tries to grab some of your cash via the utterly broken patent system. -- Russell Morris "So, broccoli, mother says you're good for me... but I'm afraid I'm no good for you!" - Stewy