Apple vs Samsung?

As a lifelong mac user (USER since 1987) I can say that the early design apps changed my life. Photoshop etc.
On that note, my best friend is a senior platform architect at MS and, while visiting him and the fam on the SSC a month ago, he more than gratiously loaned-out/pretty much gave a 2011 tablet with a windows 8 prototype to my nephew in Roberts Creek.
After watching the two kids hover over the 12" screen learning the OS, I realized things are changing.
It ain't about pinching, its about swiping.

As a lifelong mac user (USER since 1987) I can say that the early design apps changed my life. Photoshop etc.
On that note, my best friend is a senior platform architect at MS and, while visiting him and the fam on the SSC a month ago, he more than gratiously loaned-out/pretty much gave a 2011 tablet with a windows 8 prototype to my nephew in Roberts Creek.
After watching the two kids hover over the 12" screen learning the OS, I realized things are changing.
It ain't about pinching, its about swiping.

Photoshop = Adobe not Apple

Apple has patented the "look and feel" of the letter A. Adobe is now Dobe. Maybe they'll come up with an innovative 'design-around'?

Kn.

Ya I know.
But at the time, without apple, there were no object oriented graphics apps available to the general public.

Ya I know.
But at the time, without apple, there were no object oriented graphics apps available to the general public.

What's an object oriented graphics app?

What's an object oriented graphics app?

best not ask..

or Apple will sue you over the answer..

:nono:

I didn't know Palm devices in the `90s had screen enlarge features … I recall a stylus, but not multi-touch. You say patenting gestures on a 2D human-device interface that translates to a series of relatively complex device inputs is "silly". Can you qualify that?

I could be right out to lunch on that one I admit, I just seem to recall seeing something from palm well before 2007 that acted like multi-touch. I don't really understand what I need to qualify here, patenting gestures is silly, you should not be able to patent a function. You should be able to patent the way in which your device decodes the gesture itself though. How can anyone think this should be patentable?

A touch panel having a transparent capacitive sensing medium configured to detect multiple touches or near touches that occur at the same time and at distinct locations in the plane of the touch panel and to produce distinct signals representative of the location of the touches on the plane of the touch panel for each of the multiple touches is disclosed.

They did not invent capacitive touchscreens or own the patent for them but they hold the patent for the main advantage of using them just because they were the first to bring a consumer product to market that uses them.

In one aspect, one or more computer storage media can store executable instructions causing a processor to perform operations that include: providing a display environment including one or more object items; receiving a user selection of at least one of the object items; and, graphically transitioning the object item into an instance of an executing object within the display environment while retaining an aspect ratio associated with the object item.

another stupid patent that should have never been given to them, basically they got a patent on icons looking different when they are selected in 2007.

I do think Samsung was dumb with touchwiz, it is ugly and obviously a knock off of ios. Same deal with the packaging, apple has very distinctive packaging and it was stupid of Samsung to copy it ( not calling it ugly). The people using "brand X sucks" in this thread need to give their heads a shake, how much you think a brand sucks should have no bearing in Legal matters.

The Ham

Now Google is suing Apple:

http://www.xda-developers.com/android/the-sleeping-giant-may-have-awoken/

Should be interesting.

I hope Google rips them a new one.

Ya I know.
But at the time, without apple, there were no object oriented graphics apps available to the general public.

Paint shop pro, it's what I started with in 1990-91 on my Dell laptop. Worked just
fine and moving to PS in the mid 90's was seamless.

I hope Google rips them a new one.

And if Apple wins their suit will everyone be mad the big bad Apple took advantage
of the small Google company?

Sorry Ham, but the gestures are what make the experience unique, so patenting them is just
protecting their investment.

Sorry Ham, but the gestures are what make the experience unique, so patenting them is just
protecting their investment.

so patent the specific gestures (still stupid) apple has a patent on using gestures period, there is no way to design around that.

Microsoft Excel is the application that helped the Mac take off.

Ironic how Apple gets nitty on bounce back, or worse, rounded icons, yet blatantly copies Android's pulldown notification display mechanism.

so patent the specific gestures (still stupid) apple has a patent on using gestures period, there is no way to design around that.

Lets look at a hypothetical example from a different industry (bear with me there will be some hyperbole involved here).

Lets say "Company A" develops a cure for HIV that works by allowing the immune system to sense and attack the virus, everyone is really happy and all is awesome. "Company A" can charge whatever they want for the treatment because no one else has anything that comes close. A few years down the line another company "Company B" develops a treatment for HIV that works by blocking the virus's ability to penetrate the cell membrane. Now that there is competition Company A has to lower the price of their treatments and everything is even more awesome. A few years pass and Company A is awarded a medical patent for "a substance or stimulus that when introduced into the body creates an environment non conducive to the survivability of the HIV virus". Company A now requests that company B pay a royalty for every treatment sold.

Now would you say this patent is fair because no longer dying of HIV related complications is part of the "unique experience" of Company A's product? In my mind it comes down to the same thing, overly broad generalized patents that are impossible to work around.

100% relevant.