NEWS: Microsoft Patents Your Keys

GEEK: Microsoft Patents Your Keys

Microsoft’s endlessly creative legal department is constantly on the lookout for new completely obvious acts and items to patent. Once again they’ve managing to win a patent on something most of us use every day. Microsoft now owns the rights to using your keyboard to browse the web.

I feel like Microsoft will soon own enough patents to trick me into giving them full ownership of my soul while I’m using one of their nifty little patents like utilizing my lungs to breathe Microsoft-patented air.

aww you threw out my nifty copyrighted tab key!

Are you refering to the picture? Because it's there.

if you've ever clicked "i agree" to one of those end user agreements you've already sold your soul.

Jesus....that's insane, and there's not much else to say there.

I'm so glad I switched to Linux......Bill Gates was a genious, but his legal department is going way beyond the call of duty on this one. I'd rather sell my soul to SG before I sell it to MS!

I always thought that was a feature of the windows OS not of the browser, how does one make a browser in windows and have it NOT support using the tab key to cycle thought clickable things?

I think all patents should be thrown out if its contents have been used by the public for more than three years without public notification of a patent being filed.

or something...

Just fix it!

thats it. I am going to put out a patent on peoples ability to think.

apparently the patent people stamp approved on them with out reading them anyways, perhaps I will be able to start charging people to think every day.

Microsoft =

American patents are fucked up. Inventions should not be obvious and there should not be prior art in order to receive a patent. However, the American authorites seem to give patents out without testing there merit.

The text based web browser, lynx, uses the arrow keys for the same effect of moving to the first and then the next hyperlink. It is obvious that the same effect could be created by a different key.

I expect that lynx is older than the patent and that could make the Microsoft patent invalid.

shutup limey!!! uew ess eh!! uew ess eh!!!

nah, youre right, go figure

hm, i didn't know about it, but i just started hitting the tab key and firefox is doing exactly what it describes..

Quote from somewhere:

"Nonobviousness Requirement: If an invention is not exactly the same as prior products or processes (which are referred to as the "prior art"), then it is considered novel. However, in order for an invention to be patentable, it must not only be novel, but it must also be a nonobvious improvement over the prior art. This determination is made by deciding whether the invention sought to be patented would have been obvious "to one of ordinary skill in the art." In other words, the invention is compared to the prior art and a determination is made whether the differences in the new invention would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the type of technology used in the invention."



That's the word on "obvious."

[Edited on Sep 06, 2004 by lukie2p]

If Microsoft patents beating off to internet porn, we're all done for. Damn you Bill Gates.

Interesting that if you read the last line they make sure it applies to any other application as well. This is worse than amazon's copyright of the one-click online purchase. Interesting that they refer to data processing. This is not at all novel. Take away the internet and a certain sunglasses hut company ( the ones in the mall ) was using sml and along with a data entry front end WAY before lynx even.

Interesting that if you read the last line they make sure it applies to any other application as well. This is worse than amazon's copyright of the one-click online purchase. Interesting that they refer to data processing. This is not at all novel. Take away the internet and a certain sunglasses hut company ( the ones in the mall ) was using sml and along with a data entry front end WAY before lynx even.

Interesting that if you read the last line they make sure it applies to any other application as well. This is worse than amazon's copyright of the one-click online purchase. Interesting that they refer to data processing. This is not at all novel. Take away the internet and a certain sunglasses hut company ( the ones in the mall ) was using sml and along with a data entry front end WAY before lynx even.

Interesting that if you read the last line they make sure it applies to any other application as well. This is worse than amazon's copyright of the one-click online purchase. Interesting that they refer to data processing. This is not at all novel. Take away the internet and a certain sunglasses hut company ( the ones in the mall ) was using sml and along with a data entry front end WAY before lynx even.

wow a quadruple post, did your finger spasm or something?

The patent application seems to restrict this to being able to display focus indicators of varying shapes:

I'm aware of rectangular focus indicators in early browsers, but does anyone have evidence for prior art using non-rectangular shapes? It would need to be previous to IE3 if I'm reading the document correctly.

The varying shapes seem to be key, specifically in connection with image maps:

[Edited on Sep 07, 2004 by Infra]

wow, ms does it again... thanks apple