“During his presentation of the iPhone, Steve Jobs mentioned that they have filed for more then 200 patents to protect the inventions they’ve put into this new gadget. Want to know what exactly have they patented? Then read on,” Unwired View reports.
“To find out which of the cool iPhone features has been patented by Apple and are now protected from replication and which ones you can expect to be copied soon by the likes of Nokia, Samsung or Motorola, we’ve combed through the U.S. Patent and Trademark database and checked all relevant Apple’s patents,” Unwired View reports.
“And we came to a conclusion that this time Steve Jobs did his homework and most of the key features that make iPhone an iPhone will not be easily copied by competitors. This applies to Multi touch display, the idea to use full screen of the device for User Interface, scrolling, zooming and other finger gestures, soft on screen controls, multifunctionality, proximity, ambient light sensors and many other functions,” Unwired View reports.
“Steve Jobs exclaimed during [the Macworld Expo’s iPhone-dominated] keynote ‘And boy have we patented it!’ it was not an empty boast. The have indeed PATENTED it. And though not all of the claims have received patent protection yet and even less of them may withstand scrutiny in court if Apple decides to enforce them, many of the claims should should stick,” Unwired View reports. “I guess Steve has learned his lessons from Mac and there it would be very difficult for Nokia or Samsung to repeat the Microsoft Windows feat and create an iPhone knock-off without violating at least some of Apple’s IP.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “LinuxGuy and Mac Prodigal Son” for the heads up.]
Damn Skippy!
iPhone Bitch!!!!
Leopard + Multi-touch = BOOM!
Here is T-Mobile’s “iPhone-Killer”.. with WinDoze Mobile …
and in other news, Microsoft announced today that it has the patent on ‘Brown’ and ‘Squirt’.
About time they started to get the whole ‘rip off whatever apple is making now’ syndrome under control. To much apple coping… to much…
Some companies seem to think if they create a phone that looks like the iPhone it’ll be perceived to be “just as good” but I believe too many people are well aware of the capabilities of this new device and their attempt will seem like cheap knock-offs. I truly belive the iPhone will slay the mobile market, maybe not immediately, but in a fairly short amount of time and in turn bring more people to the Mac.
NOOGIES!!!
Damn, now Apple left Microsoft with only the shape of the phone to copy for their super-secret and totally innovative Zune Phone. Not that Microsoft was going to even get that perfect, but still. I can vividly imagine Motorola coming out with the “Slickr”, in an attempt to copy what’s left of the iPhone’s patent filings. Nokia will try to copy the iPhone…but will end up coming 10 inches thicker.
Kudos to Apple for protecting their hard-work this time around.
Good thing Steve learned from the mistakes of the Pepsi CEO they hired that sold out all of Apples good to MS.
I blame that Pepsi CEO guy for letting MS copy the Mac OS.
Even if Nokia, Samsung or Motorola were allowed to copy the iPhone their versions would still suck. Palm too.
There’s Apple, then there’s everybody else.
BOOM!
Steve J. is THE MAN!
Steve B. is THE MONKEY!
I DNRTFA, but at least from the portion cited here, lots of the patents listed aren’t really patentable.
“the idea to use full screen of the device for User Interface” is not a method and is not new.
“finger gestures” are unlikely to hold up.
“soft on screen controls” have existed for years in the form of contextual mouse menus.
“multifunctionality” come on..
“ambient light sensors” can be found in the nightlights in my home.
New methods for doing some of these things would be patentable, but in this list, there’s very little that couldn’t be copied using ideas that Apple has not and could not patent.
iPitty the fool who violates iPhone iPatent, it’s Apple’s iProperty!
@PC Apologist
Typical PC apologist behavior. Shows up at a Mac forum making lengthy uninformed comments.
If, like me, you’ve been watching the SteveNotes over the years, then it should have also caught your ear when Steve said the word “patent” – and boy did he emphasize it.
Don’t know details, of course, any more than the next guy, but appears the iPhone patent power is not in the Hardware, or the Software, but in the combo of the two.
And THAT, as WE all know, is the key to why/how the iPhone (well, really a “computer in your pocket”) is about to make History.
Thank You
BC Kelly
Tallahassee Fla
Hardly any of Apple’s patent claims will hold up because almost all of them except multi-touch have been seen in phones before, and other people invented multi-touch long before the iPhone ever saw the light of day.
Applying for a patent is one thing, getting it issued is another, with recent Supreme Court decisions, successfully defending a patent which is just an obvious extension of previous work became a lot harder.
“computer in your pocket”
Yes, Apple has indeed re-invented the PDA.
Rapid rebuttle unit sends this message to Pc Apologist.
Who invented the mouse?
Who invented Contextual menus?
Who invented Contextual menu short cuts via a keyboard? (When the likes of you were mired in DOS)
As for fingure gestures, I agree with you in that the Romans were the first in the use of fingure gestures. Fingure gestures as you imply do not apply to the iphone as you have to make contact with the active surface, I highly doubt any amount of gesturing in the Roman method will cause any sort of activation.
Do you know what an accelerator in an iphone does?
Do you know what the ambient light sensors control apart from screen brightness?
Do your homework before blathering like a blithering idiot on this site!
“Who invented the mouse?”
Douglas Engelbart, in 1964, 20 years before the Mac was launched.
“Who invented Contextual menus?”
Xerox, 10 years before the Mac shipped.
Who invented Contextual menu short cuts via a keyboard? (When the likes of you were mired in DOS)
Keys that quickly do a command? Late 60’s or early 70’s I beleive. Tied in to a GUI? about 1972.
“As for fingure gestures, I agree with you in that the Romans were the first in the use of fingure gestures. Fingure gestures as you imply do not apply to the iphone as you have to make contact with the active surface, I highly doubt any amount of gesturing in the Roman method will cause any sort of activation.”
Gestures: Apple, Palm, Go, Microsoft in their pen based OS’s. Multitouch, in 1982 at the University of Toronto and Bell Labs.
“Do you know what an accelerator in an iphone does?”
That would be an accelerometer, it’s like what you have in a camera to determine whether picture is taken in portrait or landscape mode, or in the case of a phone/PDA, switch the screen. It can also be used like a Wii or Playstation controller to detect movement and react accordingly. Nothing new here.
“Do you know what the ambient light sensors control apart from screen brightness?”
No, but the concept of an ambient light sensor which allows a device to react in whatever way it sees fit to changes in ambient light is hardly new.
“Do your homework before blathering like a blithering idiot on this site!”
That’s some good advice.
Crabapple
“Who invented the mouse?”
I know who invented the mouse. Why don’t you tell us all who you think did?
Do your homework before blathering like a blithering idiot on this site!
Maybe you ought to do YOUR homework before stating things you have no knowledge of….
Who invented the mouse?”
Douglas Engelbart, in 1964, 20 years before the Mac was launched.
Hmm.. funny how no one heard of a mouse until the Mac shipped. Name some products I could buy that were controlled with a mouse prior to the Mac, and what could I do with them? Who sold them?
“Who invented Contextual menus?”
Xerox, 10 years before the Mac shipped.
Again, see above. What products could I go out and buy that Xerox shipped to consumers that used this fabulous technology. Ideas that are never put to use are like fancy suits sitting in a closet gathering dust and being eaten by moths. They look great but aren’t helping anyone.
Who invented Contextual menu short cuts via a keyboard? (When the likes of you were mired in DOS)
Keys that quickly do a command? Late 60’s or early 70’s I beleive. Tied in to a GUI? about 1972.
Which GUI in 1972, is this something I could have bought in 1972? Who sold it? What did it do? In fact, what personal computers were available in 1972 that anyone without a swiss bank account and government funding could afford?
“As for fingure gestures, I agree with you in that the Romans were the first in the use of fingure gestures. Fingure gestures as you imply do not apply to the iphone as you have to make contact with the active surface, I highly doubt any amount of gesturing in the Roman method will cause any sort of activation.”
Gestures: Apple, Palm, Go, Microsoft in their pen based OS’s. Multitouch, in 1982 at the University of Toronto and Bell Labs.
Palm had gestures using a stylus, as did Newton I believe (I know they had some form of hand writing recognition). Which of these listed items are based on finger gestures (ie. not stylus). There’s a world of difference. As far as Bell Labs and “Multitouch” I don’t know how closely it compares with what the iPhone can do, so I can’t comment on that, but I’m sure much will be written about it.
“Do you know what an accelerator in an iphone does?”
That would be an accelerometer, it’s like what you have in a camera to determine whether picture is taken in portrait or landscape mode, or in the case of a phone/PDA, switch the screen. It can also be used like a Wii or Playstation controller to detect movement and react accordingly. Nothing new here.
Nothing new here, so name the phone or PDA that automatically switches from horizontal to vertical as you turn it.
I agree that the Wii controller is awesome and truly revolutionary use of a concept which has been around for years but never implemented in that way in a consumer device.
However it’s use of an accelerometer is obviously different than the iPhone, and I would guess the patent on the iPhone relates to how it is used rather than the existence of the accelerometer itself.
“Do you know what the ambient light sensors control apart from screen brightness?”
No, but the concept of an ambient light sensor which allows a device to react in whatever way it sees fit to changes in ambient light is hardly new.
Wrong again, it’s not the sensor, but HOW it is used. Apparently this very simple concept is totally lost on you. It’s not hard, try to focus here. There’s a difference between underlying theoretical technology and practical use of that technology.
Apple doesn’t come up with every piece of technology they use in every product from scratch, I don’t think anyone argues that they do. But again, there’s theory and then there’s application. Apple has a unique ability to take an existing idea and make it practical and useful, know when to use X and not Y, and when they need to use Z.
The genius behind the Apple brand is knowing how to get things to fit together so they all work together in a way that no one else has thought of before, a level of refinement in user interface design that no one else can match.
It’s already been said before in this thread but I’ll repeat it here. The patents on the iPhone are likely related to how Apple has chosen to apply existing technology to the iPhone. If the way the apply existing ideas and technology is innovative and unique enough, then they will be able to defend any challenges to their patents, successfully. I suspect Apple, a nearly 100 billion dollar company did some homework on this before they released what they expect to be their flagship product.
“Do your homework before blathering like a blithering idiot on this site!”
That’s some good advice.
Yep.
@ PC Apologist, BlitheringIdiot & Shoeman.
The following articles are copied here for you to read & reflect upon. This is me taking up my own advice (what a pleasure!)
@ twighlightmoon@mac.com THANKS!:-)
The following articles are available from WIKIPEDIA here is the link, bookmark it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
Early mice
Douglas Engelbart of the Stanford Research Institute invented the mouse in 1964[2][3] after extensive usability testing. Several other experimental pointing-devices developed for Engelbart’s oN-Line System (NLS) exploited different body movements — for example, head-mounted devices attached to the chin or nose — but ultimately the mouse won out because of its simplicity and convenience. The first mouse, a bulky device (pictured) used two gear-wheels perpendicular to each other: the rotation of each wheel translated into motion along one axis. Engelbart received patent US3541541 on November 17, 1970 for an “X-Y Position Indicator for a Display System”.[4] At the time, Engelbart envisaged that users would hold the mouse continuously in one hand and type on a five-key chord keyset with the other.[5]
[edit] Mechanical mice
Early mouse patents. From left to right: Opposing track wheels by Engelbart, Nov. 1970, U.S. Patent 3,541,541 . Ball and wheel by Rider, Sept. 1974, U.S. Patent 3,835,464 . Ball and two rollers with spring by Opocensky, Oct. 1976, U.S. Patent 3,987,685 .
A Smaky mouse, as invented at the EPFL by Jean-Daniel Nicoud and André Guignard.Bill English, builder of the original mouse, invented the so-called ball mouse in 1972 while working for Xerox PARC.[6] The ball-mouse replaced the external wheels with a single ball that could rotate in any direction. It came as part of the hardware package of the Xerox Alto computer.
Modern computer mice took form at the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) under the inspiration of Professor Jean-Daniel Nicoud and at the hands of engineer and watchmaker André Guignard.[7] This new design incorporated a single hard rubber mouseball and three buttons, and remained a common design until the mainstream adoption of the scroll-wheel mouse during the 1990s.[8]
Honeywell produced another type of mechanical mouse.[9] Instead of a ball, it had two plastic “feet” on the bottom which sensed movement. Keytronic later produced a similar product.[10]
“Who invented the mouse?
Who invented Contextual menus?
Who invented Contextual menu short cuts via a keyboard? (When the likes of you were mired in DOS)”
“funny how no one heard of a mouse until the Mac shipped.”
Clearly we have a different definition for the word INVENTED. I do not think it means what you think it means.
If the question was “Who was the first mass market seller of Mice to desktop PC buyers” then the answer might have been different.
“name the phone or PDA that automatically switches from horizontal to vertical as you turn it.”
in terms of devices which do this, KTF’s EV-KD370, Thinkpad X60, Toshiba Portege tablets, any number of cameras, the list could just keep going on. lots more auto rotate based on opening the phone, sliding out keyboards etc.
“Wrong again, it’s not the sensor, but HOW it is used”
And just how is it used? I mean other than the obvious, to control screen brightness based on ambient light?
” I suspect Apple, a nearly 100 billion dollar company did some homework on this before they released what they expect to be their flagship product.”
So many patents are just the result of a company trying to draft as broad patents as possible, hoping that they will be granted, then the onus shifts to the other guys to show obviousness, prior art etc.
“The genius behind the Apple brand is knowing how to get things to fit together so they all work together in a way that no one else has thought of before, a level of refinement in user interface design that no one else can match.”
But just because you re-use other people’s ideas in a slightly different context doesn’t make them PATENTABLE. And that’s what the discussion is about here not whether the iPhone will be a good phone but how PATENTABLE the ideas it contains are. You seem to be taking comments on the patentability of the iPhone interface as an attack on the iPhone.