Apple Patents Page Turn Animation 192
An anonymous reader sends this quote from the NY Times Bits blog:
"If you want to know just how broken the patent system is, just look at patent D670,713, filed by Apple and approved this week by the United States Patent Office. This design patent, titled, 'Display screen or portion thereof with animated graphical user interface,' gives Apple the exclusive rights to the page turn in an e-reader application. ... Apple argued that its patented page turn was unique in that it had a special type of animation other page-turn applications had been unable to create."
The article doesn't really make it clear, but this is for the UI design of showing a page being turned, not the actual function of moving from one page to another. That said, the patent itself cites similar animations in Flash from 2004.
Re:Hyperbole (Score:5, Interesting)
I frequently hear here that algorithms were explicitly excluded from patent protection.
Re:It's a design patent (Score:4, Interesting)
Broken Patent System (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:It's a design patent (Score:3, Interesting)
> Who decides what is "close enough"?
Jurors like Velvin Hogan. Yeah, you might remember that guy who ruled in favor of Apple and is now being accused of misconduct for having ignored the judge's instructions, having told the other jurors false things about what the law says, and having intentionally withheld important information during voire dire, among other things.
Re:The facepalm is strong with this one. (Score:3, Interesting)
I hate page turn animations. They are pointless transition elements that should die with print media. Let the digital age be one of an instantly displayed next page!
Re:-1, Sensational (Score:4, Interesting)
And I hate that THIS has to be explained repeatedly:
There is no obligation to behave in an unethical, immoral, or even obnoxious manner, legal or not. In theory, a corporate charter must be in the public interest and a corporation DOES have an obligation to see to it that it does operate in the public interest. The public retains (but all too rarely exercises) the right to dissolve the charter if that better serves the public interest. Just following orders is decidedly NOT an excuse.