Multi-Touch™ is a trademark of Apple Inc.
MacDailyNews Take: This must be news to many, as we see an awful lot of analysts, media outlets, and even Microsoft themselves using Apple’s Multi-Touch™ trademark (United States Patent and Trademark Office, Serial Number: 77219819) to describe Microsoft’s recent demo of their latest derivative and highly-vaporous OS, “Windows 7.”
So, Microsoft, PC Magazine, PC World et al., just so you know, Multi-Touch™ is a trademark of Apple Inc.
And don’t you forget it. 
Microsoft will no doubt call it “Intelli-Touch” to go along with all of its other lamely named “Intelli-” products.
“I vote that MS’s new touch name be ‘Fingering Touch'”
What do you want to probe today?
Lots O’ Touches
Imagine the new Zune with Multi-Squirt™…
In deference to the soon-to-be-retired (to peddle his particular brand of evil in the pharmaceutical world) William H Gates jnr I suggest it be called……….
TouchBob™
That should go down really well with some of the clients of Preston, Gates & Ellis.
Abramoff actually went to jail – who were the players that managed to put such a big stooge forward?
Billy Goat gonna get sued hefty for his continuing bald stealing.
If he couldn’t rip off Apple he’d have no purpose in life and no ideas. He would cease to exist.
And the lemmings would be spared horrible time-wasting cheap fake pale broken imitations of the Mac.
Lost touch
handy wipes
many points of contact clicking and dragging thingy
by MS
More grist for the mill. Can you imagine the upcoming Mac vs PC commercial?
PC character as a foppish bank robber.
Multi-squirt.
Soarry, I cooldn’t ‘a’ hepp mysyelf.
“handy wipes”
So, it’s just a smear campaign?
maybe they’ll just call it a “recycle bin”
They will name it Microsoft Windows Live Multiple Fingers Gestures In A Big Table.
So, Microsoft, PC Magazine, PC World et al., just so you know, Multi-Touch™ is a trademark of Apple Inc.
MS’s attempt will be called “Me-Too”.
It’d be a fitting followup to their pathetic “Look we’re cool too!” Windows 7 demo.
Multi-Touch™ is a trademark of Apple Inc.
1. A patent or trademark is only as good as the lawyer defending it.
2. When was the last time MS respected anyone’s intellectual property?
Gates or Ballmer trying to be cool is like listening to Karl Rove rap or Colin Powell putting on a hardhat and singing “YMCA” by the Village People.
…or Michael Jackson, in a ten gallon hat & pink tights, singing “Wichita Lineman”.
(makes beeline to porcelain goddess….)
I don’t care what they call it I just want Apple to sue the hell out of M$ (and anyone else come to think of it) who tries to implement multi-touch.
Apple must have surely got this one locked down. Problem is that in the electonic industry it can take years to get a patent enforced properly by which time the technology is obsolete or superseded by something else.
Weird all the way around. I mean how many times does Kara say iPhone? This is so blatant it seems ridiculous. Apple should sue them just for the publicity to show MSFT just poaches innovation.
What’s even worse is that they always do half-ass barely workable copies. Watch the “multi-touch” carefully in the demo. She starts drawing with one finger and it cuts out – it DOESN’T EVEN WORK RIGHT IN THE DEMO!
But… but… but… Microsoft’s technology will for the first time facilitate the creation of fine art on a computer platform:
:lol”
Let’s be clear – once someone owns a trademark, you ARE NOT free to use it. Multi-touch is Apple’s trademark. Microsoft, MDN, me, or anyone else does NOT have the right to use Multi-Touch without Apple’s permission or without properly crediting Apple.
Have you noticed how people and companies can not use the name “Super Bowl” in their advertising, giveaways, etc.? That’s because they didn’t receiver permission from the NFL, the holder of the “Super Bowl” trademark, to use the name. Thus, they must call it something like, “The Really Big Football Game” or something stupid like that in their commercials. Otherwise, the NFL would sue them, and it’s an open and shut case.
Microsoft will re-brand their version of Multi-Touch into some other name. However, what will really be interesting is to see just how far Apple went at patenting the technology which Multi-Touch is based on. Those patents, if awarded, could lock everyone else out of the multi-touch PC/mobile phone user interface.
And @ Spartacus: Apple never patented or trademarked “windows” or virtually anything else with the original Mac OS, which is why Apple lost in court to Microsoft. Apple’s being much smarter this time around. Jobs learned a hard, hard lesson which he is evidently not going to forget.
I think it will just be called “The Finger”: •|•
The current demonstration may involve the touching of fingers or other parts of the human anatomy to the screen BUT the other two implementations, the big-ass table and the big-ass wall-chart, do not work by touch at all. They basically work by the use of infrared ranging and triangulation technology. Because of the poor resolution of infrared devices, the miniaturization possible for real ‘touch’ interfaces is not possible so their implementations are limited to over-sized devices. The BAtable and the BAwall-chart are really amazing in that they have been able to get the results they have with such low resolution solutions.
MS will market either;
Multi-Tuch™
or
Multee-Touch™
Nothing more. Nothing less.