nooooo...

[trorion]

http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn5072

Ok, so does this mean I now have to pay Microsoft a patent fee every time I shut down my desktop by pushing and holding my power button?

Summary of article: Microsoft has patented the concept of pushing buttons in different ways to get different results (push and hold =X while pushing twice = Y)

[rcmiv]

http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn5072

Ok, so does this mean I now have to pay Microsoft a patent fee every time I shut down my desktop by pushing and holding my power button?

Summary of article: Microsoft has patented the concept of pushing buttons in different ways to get different results (push and hold =X while pushing twice = Y)

I think your power button is safe, but try to develop an open source application launcher or suchlike for use on a PDA. Make sure it doesn't use "clicking" of any kind.

What a crock. The patent system is broken. The copyright system as well. Both are valuable, important, and badly in need of reform.

Software patents are double bs.

From the article:

"These are symptoms of the fact that the patent system is not well-adapted to being applied to software," says Jonas Maebe, of the Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure, and a computer scientist at the University of Ghent in Belgium.

-rcmiv

[ispmarin]

They are on a campaign to get all the patents they could, even the craziest one. And Balmer said that they think about starting to sue linux developers...

[nickle]

patenting physical movements such as /single/double/tripple long short/long clicks is like patenting farting... man what will these ***holes think of next....

[Sirin]

Heh, then let's get the patent for single clicking! KDE will be proud!

[ispmarin]

Why not just patenting the combination CPU+Monitor+keyboard+mouse??

[ispmarin]

Headphones... maybe the monitor resolutions! 1024x768 only on windows!

[red_Marvin]

Is it actually possible to patent already commonly implemented stuff??




...Breathing...

[ispmarin]

It depends of the interpretation of "common stuff" that the patent office in the USA will give... and they are giving some very, very stupid patents.

[Zodiac]

I thought Konami did that first?

Up, down, left, right, up down, you get the idea...