Apple awarded multi-touch patent -- this could be UGLY

[bronco67]

http://www.redmondpie.com/apple-gran...now-uncertain/

Do you think they'll start suing the fuck out of everyone, and blocking competitors from making new devices with touch-screens? It's a safe bet.

[DamianJ]

Apple sux etc

[beta-tester]

yeah I thought they will be granted that. Now we'll see what happens with the others using the same technology...

[Redrob]

I wouldn't want to be Job's bitch......

[Mutt]

oh fuck that is ridiculous - Apple didn't invent touch screen technology.

ok so i can go register a patent for a screen on a mobile device that is sensitive to the movement of my fingers without touching the screen at all and get it it i guess? or a patent on mobile device that is voice activated?

i don't know who has the patent on touch screen technology - whoever did deserves a patent.

before you get a fucking patent you should have to produce a working demo of it not just let idiots write down some idea in their head with some technical illustrations.

[u-Bob]

patents suck and limit innovation.

[iwantchixx]

That's all kinds of fucked up. HP had that technology in action long before Apple did.
It's bullshit like that patent that destroys the ability for any company to ever keep up with technological trends or it just means more money in apple's pockets.

[iwantchixx]

Originally Posted by Mutt

oh fuck that is ridiculous - Apple didn't invent touch screen technology.

ok so i can go register a patent for a screen on a mobile device that is sensitive to the movement of my fingers without touching the screen at all and get it it i guess? or a patent on mobile device that is voice activated?

i don't know who has the patent on touch screen technology - whoever did deserves a patent.

before you get a fucking patent you should have to produce a working demo of it not just let idiots write down some idea in their head with some technical illustrations.

They aren't patenting touch screens, they are patenting multi-touch

[FlowerKid]

I don't think they can patent multi-touch now, because anyone is using it already and it's nothing special anymore these days. At least i hope they aren't able to do so...

[2MuchMark]

Peeps... if Apple invented it and awarded the patent, they own it. How can you talk like this yet be against Tube sites at the same time?

Apple could easily sell the use of their technology to other phone and tablet makers if they choose to. Technology licensing rewards the inventors and grows the company and allows continued innovation.

[2MuchMark]

Originally Posted by iwantchixx

That's all kinds of fucked up. HP had that technology in action long before Apple did.
It's bullshit like that patent that destroys the ability for any company to ever keep up with technological trends or it just means more money in apple's pockets.

By this thinking, it's ok for Tube sites to give away all the content you shot and own, because you don't need more money, right? And after all, Tube sites need money too, right?

[Far-L]

Originally Posted by FlowerKid

I don't think they can patent multi-touch now, because anyone is using it already and it's nothing special anymore these days. At least i hope they aren't able to do so...

The patent was applied for 4 years ago. That is how long the process took before they were awarded it.

[JamesGw]

They might've come up with the idea first (maybe), but they sure as hell weren't the first to implement it. This is crap.

[d-null]

this makes me hate Apple and never will buy an Apple product, fuck them

[JFK]

Originally Posted by Far-L

The patent was applied for 4 years ago. That is how long the process took before they were awarded it.

WOW, pretty instant service

[96ukssob]

As much as I like Apple, that is kind of bs IMO. How can they patent that kind of technology, its almost like trying to patent the steering wheel

[bronco67]

Originally Posted by d-null

this makes me hate Apple and never will buy an Apple product, fuck them

There could be a lot of people with that mindset. If Apple doesn't tread carefully with this new development, they could end up alienating lots of potential customers, and just have a general backlash against them that could really hurt them.

I actually hope this happens.

[Emil]

What the fuck! Fucking Apple.

[Due]

Originally Posted by bossku69

As much as I like Apple, that is kind of bs IMO. How can they patent that kind of technology, its almost like trying to patent the steering wheel

If they invented it then why not ? Allowing them to monetize their inventions is pretty fair

[Rochard]

Originally Posted by Mutt

oh fuck that is ridiculous - Apple didn't invent touch screen technology.

ok so i can go register a patent for a screen on a mobile device that is sensitive to the movement of my fingers without touching the screen at all and get it it i guess? or a patent on mobile device that is voice activated?

i don't know who has the patent on touch screen technology - whoever did deserves a patent.

before you get a fucking patent you should have to produce a working demo of it not just let idiots write down some idea in their head with some technical illustrations.

I agree, you shouldn't be able to patent common sense things. "I"m gonna patent the use of buttons for radios".

It's just like the Acacia lawsuits. They have a patent for "the delivery compressed video files via the Internet". Their patent is so fucking vague it sounds like they are trying to transport musical instruments through time and space to another location.

[potter]

Originally Posted by bossku69

As much as I like Apple, that is kind of bs IMO. How can they patent that kind of technology, its almost like trying to patent the steering wheel

..there are plenty of patents for steering wheels

[NaughtyRob]

Exactly. I wondered about this after other people started coming out with multi-touch. Apple indeed used it first.

Originally Posted by Due

If they invented it then why not ? Allowing them to monetize their inventions is pretty fair

Multi-touch is not common sense. They invented it. Its not something any Joe could invent like a dice game or something.

Originally Posted by Rochard

I agree, you shouldn't be able to patent common sense things. "I"m gonna patent the use of buttons for radios".

[Due]

Originally Posted by u-Bob

patents suck and limit innovation.

How ??

Do you think innovators work for free ?

[NetHorse]

Wow, this is big news. Nokia was set to release their N9 with MeeGo. Despite volume buttons it relies 100% on multi-touch.



BTW, this Nokia phone looks super sleek, really caught my attention.

[MaDalton]

Apple stole the mouse and windows desktop from Xerox - just saying

[bronco67]

Originally Posted by MaDalton

Apple stole the mouse and windows desktop from Xerox - just saying

I remember that from Triumph of the Nerds documentary.

[Markul]

Apple didnt invent touch screens.. my ancient HTC had touch screen before the iPhone was out

[seeandsee]

fyck ya apple, you didt create all you are just fucking money wanters

[DateDoc]

The Apple attorneys are hard at work today. Should be a nice cash flow for them if they just go the licensing route.

[NaughtyRob]

There is a big difference between "touch screens" and MULTI TOUCH.

Originally Posted by Markul

Apple didnt invent touch screens.. my ancient HTC had touch screen before the iPhone was out

[Markul]

True

8char

[RebelR]

Now This is a Game Changer! Correct me if I'm wrong, but the multi-touch just refers to the ability to zoom by moving two fingers inwards and outwards to zoom, or 3 fingers for scrolling to the bottom of a page and moves like that correct? The others will just have to come up with a new and more innovative way to make their products unique and more user friendly.

[ThatOtherGuy - BANNED FOR LIFE]

Weird I remember ATM Machines having touch screens way back in 2000.
So Multi-TOuch is different LOL! Of course! of course....

[potter]

Originally Posted by NaughtyRob

There is a big difference between "touch screens" and MULTI TOUCH.

And there's also no way to patent "multi touch", that's not what Apple did. Apple got a patent on THEIR multi touch. If other companies are using something different than they're fine.

It's like the remote control sitting next to me. It's probably patented. But "remotes" aren't patented. The specific technology this specific remote might use could be though.

Or "jet engines". No one has a patent on "jet engines", however every jet engine out there is patented. If I want a jet engine I have two options - I can buy someone else's or make up my own.

[Joshua G]

This sucks. If apple is able to squeeze competitors with royalty payments. Then the fee will be passed onto the customers.

Its always the consumer that takes it in the ass.

[buildingfutures]

Originally Posted by JFK

WOW, pretty instant service

[iwantchixx]

Originally Posted by **********

By this thinking, it's ok for Tube sites to give away all the content you shot and own, because you don't need more money, right? And after all, Tube sites need money too, right?

What the fuck are you talking about? We are talking about patents and how broad patents hurt innovation in the marketplace because of greed, not tube sites. So since we are grabbing at straws here about unrelated things, let me remind you of something related. Acacia. You must support their efforts then if we are going to use this kind of logic.

Geez now I remember why I stopped posting here a few years back. because of people who look way too deep into other people's posts and come back with unrelated matters to prove a pointless view on something

[iwantchixx]

now that I think of it, HP wasn't using multi-touch before apple did.. it was infrared sensors in each corner of the screen that sensed when something got "in it's way" and interpolated the position to the computer. however, microsoft has been. Remember microsoft surface? There's proof of prior art there... unless apple had prior art in their labs long before MS started working on the surface platform.

[iwantchixx]

Originally Posted by d-null

this makes me hate Apple and never will buy an Apple product, fuck them

Careful, this ********** fella might think you support stolen content on tubes with that kind of thinking lol

[woj]

you guys make it sound like patenting stuff is something new... ALL major tech companies patent anytime some engineer dreams up some even remotely plausible technology....

[u-Bob]

Originally Posted by **********

Technology licensing rewards the inventors and grows the company and allows continued innovation.

Patent = a license to use the power of the state to exclude other people or companies from the market.

Patent = a license to use the power of the state to stop people from using a certain technology even if they developed it independently from you, even if they developed it 100 years before you did.

[thickcash_amo]

Apple is the worst, and going to take over technology if we let them

[Tempest]

This patent, first submitted to the US Patent Office on December 19th 2007, gives Apple the ability to sue any of its competitors who sell mobile devices with multi-touch hardware.

Interesting how it's a narrow patent applying only to mobile devices.

multi-touch refers to a touch sensing surface's (trackpad or touchscreen) ability to recognize the presence of two or more points of contact with the surface. This plural-point awareness is often used to implement advanced functionality such as pinch to zoom or activating predefined programs.

Here's where it will get interesting in terms of it being able to be held up in a court of law.

One of the early implementations of mutual capacitance touchscreen technology was developed at CERN in 1977 based on their capacitance touch screens developed in 1972 by Danish electronics engineer Bent Stumpe.

Multi-touch technology began in 1982, when the University of Toronto's Input Research Group developed the first human-input multi-touch system.

In 1983, Bell Labs at Murray Hill published a comprehensive discussion of touch-screen based interfaces. In 1984, Bell Labs engineered a touch screen that could change images with more than one hand. In 1985, the University of Toronto group including Bill Buxton developed a multi-touch tablet that used capacitance rather than bulky camera-based optical sensing systems.

A breakthrough occurred in 1991, when Pierre Wellner published a paper on his multi-touch "Digital Desk", which supported multi-finger and pinching motions.

And here's why Apple thinks they own it...

The company Fingerworks developed various multi-touch technologies between 1999 and 2005, including Touchstream keyboards and the iGesture Pad. Several studies of this technology were published in the early 2000s by Alan Hedge, professor of human factors and ergonomics at Cornell University. Apple acquired Fingerworks and its multi-touch technology in 2005. Mainstream exposure to multi-touch technology occurred in 2007 when the iPhone gained popularity, with Apple stating they 'invented multi touch' as part of the iPhone announcement, however both the function and the term predate the announcement or patent requests, except for such area of application as capacitive mobile screens, which did not exist before Fingerworks/Apple's technology

[rowan]

Originally Posted by **********

Peeps... if Apple invented it and awarded the patent, they own it. How can you talk like this yet be against Tube sites at the same time?

You can't compare them directly, because an idea for something may be independently conceived and developed by more than one person. The fuss seems to be about Apple patenting something that they don't have a right to patent (because of prior art), rather than them coming up with something genuinely unique.

If you want to further your tube stealing analogy, tube sites would need to display content that hasn't actually been shot yet.

[input]

Originally Posted by Tempest

Interesting how it's a narrow patent applying only to mobile devices.



Here's where it will get interesting in terms of it being able to be held up in a court of law.


And here's why Apple thinks they own it...

all that means is those companies prior to Fingerworks may use their technology in their applications without fear of reprisal, since they demonstrated prior use. If those companies didn't patent their multi-touch, Apple has free roam on everyone else (excl. cern, bell labs et al) to force licensing.

If Fingerworks held the patent and Apple bought Fingerworks, Apple "invented" multitouch and holds the patent. That is the one of the whole strategic reasons companies buy out others

[Nathan]

Multi-Touch from a pure TECHNICAL standpoint is actually not at all the same as a touch screen.

This is nothign about "use two fingers to turn an image" crap.. this is a TECHNOLOGY patent about the TECH of our the multi-touch works. A normal touch screen back in the day was pressure sensetive, or at least could not distinguish multiple fingers. Apples tech actually is a system to distinguish any number of touches on a device. THIS is what they patented, and I do not think anyone else had it before.. if anyone did, then the patent is invalid or is moved to the company that did it before, thats how patents work...

[Nathan]

should have read tempest's post ... guess its not that easy..

[SmokeyTheBear]

Originally Posted by input

If Fingerworks held the patent and Apple bought Fingerworks, Apple "invented" multitouch and holds the patent. That is the one of the whole strategic reasons companies buy out others

if you baked a cake and i bought your house, it doesn't mean i baked the cake , it simply means i bought the house the cake was baked in

"inventing" something cannot be bought or sold.

It would be like saying the king of spain found america not christopher columbus

[Tempest]

Originally Posted by input

all that means is those companies prior to Fingerworks may use their technology in their applications without fear of reprisal, since they demonstrated prior use. If those companies didn't patent their multi-touch, Apple has free roam on everyone else (excl. cern, bell labs et al) to force licensing.

If Fingerworks held the patent and Apple bought Fingerworks, Apple "invented" multitouch and holds the patent. That is the one of the whole strategic reasons companies buy out others

Fingerworks didn't have a patent.. multi-touch was invented long before.. What Apple appears to be trying to do is patent the application of multi-touch on mobile devices.

[Dirty Dane]

Trust me, military invented the technology long long long before Apple. But I don't think they will "patent" it in public