Apple Sued For Using Tabs In OS X Tiger 435
rizzo320 writes "AppleInsider is reporting that an Illinois-based company and its Nevada partner have filed a lawsuit against Apple Inc., alleging that Mac OS X 10.4 'Tiger' infringes an interface patent relating to the OS's nearly universal use of tabs. The suit was filed in the patent troll's and forum shopper's favorite venue: Marshall, TX. The patent in question is 5072412, which was originally issued to Xerox in 1987, but is now owned or licensed to IP Innovation LLC and its parent Technology Licensing Corporation. 'Category dividers triggered by Spotlight searches, as well as page tabs in the Safari web browser, bear the closest similarity to the now 20-year-old description' of the patent, according to the article. IP Innovation is requesting damages in excess of $20 million and an injunction against future sales and distribution of Mac OS X 10.4. Software patent reform can't come soon enough!"
Re:Is there an English version of this patent? (Score:5, Informative)
Or, to put it another way, you have no idea what you're talking about. Software patents are totally different from normal patents because they protect ideas instead of implimentations. This is inevitable since software is almost always translated from a source language, which is often a trade secret. If software patents were the same as normal ones it would be the details of this source code which is protected (as it is by copyright law already). Allowing patents on software extends the protection to any implimentation in any language and often with any algorithm. This is vastly more protection than a normal patent which covers only one, clearly defined, method and effectively allows a software patent to lock up an entire idea or concept.
Additionally, this patent covers something which is as old as the hills. Tabs for organising pages are almost as old as paper itself. Putting that onto a computer simulation of paper is not something that should be patentable at all.
TWW
The Apple Lisa had tabs! (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Patent expired? (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Marshall, TX (Score:2, Informative)
See Texas IP rocket docket [law.com].
Re:Marshall, TX (Score:5, Informative)
One wonders if this boils down to a single judge, who might appreciate a free MacBook.
"Juries in East Texas, unlike those in Houston, Dallas or Austin, are much less likely to have a member with any technical training or education, which exacerbates the problem from the defense perspective, but makes East Texas federal courts an attractive venue for would-be plaintiffs, who know that the jury will, instead, gravitate toward softer or superficial issues that are difficult to predict." http://www.wsgr.com/news/PDFs/09202004_patentpirat es.pdf [wsgr.com]
Re:Marshall, TX (Score:3, Informative)
The C.Y.A. clause (Score:1, Informative)
Re:Mozilla? (Score:5, Informative)
Swooooooosh
Re:Patent expired? (Score:5, Informative)
What we appear to have here is a patent troll who waited until the last minute to file, hoping to grab as much infringing money as possible. However, the doctrine of laches prevents this sort of behavior. Laches means that you cannot sit on your rights and constructively encourage infringement only to later sue. Think of it as entrapment or inducement.
More importantly, this idea has been mainstream for years. Visual Basic (et al.) allow for this sort of tabbing behavior. The question is whether M$ is licensed, or whether the troll has been sitting on his rights. Beyond that, we can't know all of the ins and outs of the case at this point.
[1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patent [wikipedia.org]
Re:Patent expired? (Score:5, Informative)
Also, as the previous poster noted, the term of United States patents [wikipedia.org] changed after this patent was granted. For patents in force before 1995, the patent lasts the greater of 20 years after filing or 17 years after grant. Thus, this patent is in force until 2008.
Re:Cashcows (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Opera next? (Score:4, Informative)
http://tech.cybernetnews.com/2006/07/26/cybernote
Re:Patent expired? (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Mozilla? (Score:5, Informative)
No, Bill Gates was "inspired"... Jobs actually licensed the technology.
Re:Opera next? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Birth of GUI (Score:3, Informative)
I'm going to have to disagree with you on that one. Maybe the Wright Brothers didn't come up with the idea of flying or the first airplane but they made the first airplane that actually flew. Therefore they invented flying.