The double-click is patented

[matthew]

Yep, Read it right here, straight from the US patent office. Any guesses as to the patent holder?

http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=/netahtml/srchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=6,727,830.WKU.&OS=PN/6,727,830&RS=PN/6,727,830

EDIT: Sorry guys, this is a bit late...old news. I just noticed the date on the patent. I still find the concept pretty strange, though. People were doing this a long time before the patent was applied for.

[Galoot]

I understand "pumping the brakes in icy conditions" is patented by Ford, too.

[bob_c_b]

There are an awful lot of patents out there that won't hold up in court, but really, someone run down and slap the guy with the rubber "APPROVED" stamp at the patent office :smile:

[drogoh]

Gotta hand it to big corporations for having the USPTO in their pocket to stifle innovation. Seriously, Amazon, what on earth is one click buy going to help by being patented? Turn of the century (the last one, ie., 1899-1900), patents were good because a lot of little companies offering the same thing were popping up and folding by the time a person could scrape enough cash together but this day in time it's just pathetic. Personally, I'd do away with the USPTO and their antequated practices now that it's so easy for a large corporation to simply buy their way into patents (SCO cannon fodder anyone?)

[BoyOfDestiny]

Well off the top of my head, some prior art from around 1989...

River City Ransom (Technos) Double tap left or right to run.

[Kvark]

I think that patent applies only when double click is used to start programs and open saved documents on a PDA or other hand held computer. But it's still very obvious and simple.

Well, guess Microsoft gotta get a lot of nonsence patents to keep up the pace of 3000 patents per year.

[codejunkie]

it's not these patents that bother me it's the DMCA and what these idots do once they get some retard at the patent office to give them a patent on something they had nothing to do with. i bet microsoft has a patent on the gui interface too but correct me if im wrong but wasn't apple the first to have a gui interface and i read they copied that idea from xerox.

[TravisNewman]

yeah everyone stole from xerox, it's kinda sad.

[xequence]

Inventors: Lui; Charlton E. (Redmond, WA); Blum; Jeffrey R. (Seattle, WA)
Assignee: Microsoft Corporation (Redmond, WA)
Appl. No.: 195256
Filed: July 12, 2002

Stupid, microsoft didnt invent the double click...

You shouldent be able to patent actions. Just ideas... Like if you invented a cure for cancer, by all means, patent it. But patenting double clicking is like patenting breathing, to a lesser extent.

[PatrickMay16]

yeah everyone stole from xerox, it's kinda sad.

Yes. Nathan Lineback's GUI gallery has some information on that, including screenshots of the Xerox GUIs.
http://toastytech.com/guis/index.html

[bob_c_b]

Like if you invented a cure for cancer, by all means, patent it.

I have no issue with companies getting patents on some things, but something like a cure for cancer should not be patented. Some inventions/creations should be free from this kind of burden, specifically items that are truly essential for the greater good. Now if you want to patent your manufacturing process for making a specific method of delivery for that cure, by all means protect your work. But virtually every pharma company the world over has used govt money and university research to study cancer, they have no right to lock such an important thing up with a patent.

I have to refer back to Benjamin Franklin for an example; he refused patents on the Franklin stove (created twice the heat with a quarter of the wood), bi-focals and the lightning rod becuase he truly believed that nothing should hinder these important items from getting into the hands of as many people as possilbe for the least possible expense. I consider this ideology to be similair to OSS philosophy, many things need to remain open to research for the greater good.

Someone should remind MS that much of their "innovation" was born of similair university and govt funded research and another good portion of it was borrowed from other companies. Apple should be slapped for most of their recent "look and feel patents" that virtually all have loads of prior art. Anything that takes a "real life" concept and uses it as a metaphor via software (AOLs T.V. station metaphor, Amazon's one click shopping cart, Apple's waste basket) do not deserve patents or protection and should be stripped of all "protection" ASAP.

Imagine if all scientific, mathematic and medical research was encumbered with the same patents that most U.S. software companies and big pharma are using today? We would be decades behind where we are. We need to stop the abuse of the patent system ASAP before Amazon patents clicking the submit button ](*,)

[TravisNewman]

ok is it just me or does the Xerox Star interface look a lot more efficient than many (perhaps most) modern operating systems?

[KiwiNZ]

ok is it just me or does the Xerox Star interface look a lot more efficient than many (perhaps most) modern operating systems?

It does.
But they blinked they were not prepared to take the plunge ,take the risk, so they lost