Microsoft Granted 1-Click Pausing Patent

from the because-we-needed-more-clicking-patents dept

theodp writes "Christmas has come early to Microsoft. After a 12-year battle with the USPTO, the software giant has been granted a patent for Pausing television programming in response to selection of hypertext link, an invention which 'enables a viewer to arbitrarily pause a television program, access a computer network such as Internet, explore the content available at the viewer's leisure and then resume viewing the program at any time without missing any of it.' Handling the patent for Microsoft was Rick D. Nydegger, Chair of the USPTO's Patent Public Advisory Committee." It would seem like this is the sort of thing that Tim Lee was just talking about. It's a software patent on an idea so obvious that most people wouldn't even bother thinking about it. If you're going to include an interactive functionality within a video where someone would click on something, of course you'd want to pause the video playback when someone clicked.
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  • identicon
    discojohnson, 14 Dec 2005 @ 7:15pm

    No Subject Given

    i think this is more of a societal problem in that if MS doesn't patent it someone else will and then there would be a problem for MS. i agree it's a messed up practice, but businesses are forced to keep the practice going to protect themselves from trolls. it's going to keep going this way (and probably to a degree we haven't yet thought of) until the patent office is changed.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Philip, 15 Dec 2005 @ 12:42pm

      Re: No Subject Given

      I'll go for that, IF and ONLY if MS doesn't attempt to sue people that use this same method. However, we all know very well they will attempt to sue.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Sv, 16 Dec 2005 @ 1:30am

        Re: No Subject Given

        Do you have example where MS sued over stupid patent? I think in most cases they are the ones getting sued over a stupid patent, which in turn forces them to patent more stupid patents lately.

        link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    citizenr, 14 Dec 2005 @ 8:36pm

    apple

    so is that why quicktime does not pause when i click on a video with embedded hyperlink?

    link to this | view in chronology ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.