These are the multi-touch gestures in the patent.
http://guides.macrumors.com/Gallery_of_Gesture_User_Interface_Patent
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These are the multi-touch gestures in the patent.
http://guides.macrumors.com/Gallery_of_Gesture_User_Interface_Patent
No they aren't. Those are the multi-touch gestures in the patent application. As I pointed out (quite clearly, I thought), there is no such thing as infringing a patent application. The whole world is free to use exactly those gestures unless and until Apple actually gets a patent on them.
This macrumor article said Apple is awarded a patent.
https://www.macrumors.com/2009/01/26/apple-awarded-iphone-and-multi-touch-patent/
Android doesn't have Exchange support? Seriously? That's news to me since I have my Droid synced with my Exchange email and calendar at work.
Yes, that is the patent to which I referred (rubber banding and scrolling). Only the claims in a patent matter (not the other 350 pages). This is the only multitouch related patent that Apple has received so far, and it doesn't claim any of the gestures to which you are referring.
Can we stop going in circles now?
Admittedly I am very ignorant in the world of patent law. Still it seems highly unlikely that anyone would be granted a patent on a "gesture". It just sounds ridiculous on its face.
I am not going circle with you. Your first post did not provide a link. Besides, the patent is not simply scrolling and rubber banding as you described.
"A computer-implemented method for use in conjunction with a computing device with a touch screen display comprises: detecting one or more finger contacts with the touch screen display, applying one or more heuristics to the one or more finger contacts to determine a command for the device, and processing the command."
BTW, I believe the latest OS X also uses this technology.
As I understand, the patent applies to specific method and not the gesture (and it can not be any other way). So as long as second company uses different algorithm/heuristics to track the fingers this patent will not prevent it.
I think you are just replacing the phrase computer-implemented method with algorithm/heuristics.
The thing you are citing is NOT THE CLAIMS. All that matters in a patent is WHAT IS CLAIMED. The CLAIMS are the numbered items at the back of the patent. The thing you quote above DOES NOT MATTER.
It is theoretically possible to claim the gesture. For example, the claim could be something like:
A method of interacting with a computational device, comprising:
1) placing two fingers on said device, wherein said fingers are substantially adjacent
2) spreading apart said two fingers such that said fingers are no longer adjacent
3) in response to said spreading apart of said two fingers, scaling an image displayed by said device such that said scale is related to the distance between said fingers.
So does Surface, Windows 7, Android, and anything else that does multi-touch. 25 years ago systems were doing multi-touch.
Why are you arguing about this with a patent attorney?
I should also point out that Apple does have at least one patent (stemming, I believe, from a fingerworks patent application) that claims some of the hardware aspects of multitouch. I believe this is irrelevant to the google-no-multitouch-in-the-U.S. issue because these are hardware claims, and disabling multitouch behavior in software obviously doesn't change the hardware. The claims also don't have anything to do with gestures, so they're not relevant to our little aside.
I highly doubt that. Being a software developer, my understanding is that you can reproduce the behavior (in this case gesture) but not the algorithm/method. Hence the whole "clean room" techniques. BTW, as I see it, the only technical problem in multi-touch is to come up with a panel that can report the actual touches (and this thing is not even produced let along patented by Apple). Once the software can receive the data from such panel the rest is rather trivial excercize so I highly doubt that Apple can prevent anybody from implementing multi-touch.
The cleanroom thing is for copyright, not patents. It is perfectly acceptable to claim a method of doing something. The claim I gave above is likely valid (at least as far as 35 USC 101 goes - it would be invalid due to prior art, etc.)
For example, IBM has a patent on the method of scrolling a screen that involves putting a new line of text on the bottom of the screen and moving the rest of the lines up. That's why a lot of old terminals just reset to the top of the screen when they reach the bottom. It doesn't matter what software you use - if you scroll like that, you would have infringed the patent.
I guess deaf sign language then would qualify as prior art
Same gestures, and I do not think that someone can claim that he patented the same signs only for a different communication client (i.e. person-to-person, person-to-computer).
I guess deaf sign language then would qualify as prior art
True. The first person to invent a given sign language could patent it (if it was novel and non-obvious). It's questionable whether applying it to a computer is sufficiently new and non-obvious. Eventually we'll hear what the USPTO has to say about that (and eventually probably what the courts have to say about it).
There's also a case (In re Bilski) in the Supreme Court right now that will hopefully tell us a little more about whether merely taking an algorithm and applying it by computer makes it patentable.
Not joking at all.
For more recent (but pre-Iphone) multi-touch, look up the works of Jeff Han (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jefferson_Y._Han), or follow the references from Wikipedia.
Apple did not invent multi-touch.
Thanks to the link. It is interesting that Apple not only get a patent for multi-touch. It is also an Apple trademark. This means the previous researches did not describe it as such.
Further, I think Apple patent specifically describes how the fingers movements are interpreted. Therefore Android may implement something similar but the interpretation must be different.
It is not an Apple trademark. They have filed a trademark application, but so far it has been rejected. http://tarr.uspto.gov/servlet/tarr?regser=serial&entry=77219819
They may eventually get it, but I would think it unlikely as "multi-touch" to describe multiple touches is what trademark attorneys call "merely descriptive" and generally not entitled to trademark protection.
Searching for 'site:microsoft.com "multi-touch"' gets 111K matches, 5.4K on dell.com, 2K on hp.com.
It's pretty generic already.
It's not quite that clear - Europe disallows software patents "as such" but not if they solve a technical problem via an "inventive step." So "business method" patents are disallowed, but something like multi-touch might be allowed. Nonethless, this is as good a theory as any.