Adding A Second Touchscreen Is Patentable?
from the in-what-world? dept
It really has become somewhat ridiculous when you look at what some companies figure is patentable these days. Engadget points us to a newly published patent application from Apple for a "Hand held electronic device with multiple touch sensing devices." While plenty of sites scour these types of patents to get a better feel for new Apple products, this really looks like a ridiculous patent. The "innovation" in the application is simply the idea that you would add a second touch sensor to a handheld device, rather than just a single sensor. Yes, that seems to be the grand total of the invention, and it's designed to cover any such device that happens to include a second touch sensor -- because, clearly, without this patent, no one would ever independently think of adding a second touch sensor to a device. Again, since it's just an application, we can hope it's rejected. But, the ease of getting patents these days encourages companies to apply for such patents on ridiculously obvious ideas.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.
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In fact...
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when
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?
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I DID IT!
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re: when
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Re: re: when
"A team of indivuals evaluating submitted ideas for uniqueness with the aid of a computer system" is.
If the patent holder refuses to license this "technology" to the patent office, then they can't use computers. Or at least, in the world according to the patent legislation.
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Re: when
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Re: No, Mark, your comment is invalid
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http://www.mobilewhack.com/reviews/canova_dual_display_touch_screen_notebook_concept.html
loo ks like that would compete, no?
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Apparently, people only read the title of a patent
Once again, this is not simply "two touch screens" being patented.
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Re: Levi
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Re: Levi's comment
So Apple's patented the Nintendo DS?
This was my thought exactly, now Nintendo is going to have to license this technology from Apple, and change the name to the iDS.
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Re: when
PS. Are we getting out of Iraq soon? Oh no, the government still thinks it was the right thing to do.
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Re: Re: when
Nononono, noone in the gov't thinks it was the right thing to do. Every one of them is well aware it was the perfectly wrong thing to do.
But they can't actually admit that. Think of the worldwide repurcussions from that. People might actually respect us. We can't have that. We MUST continue to say that it was a good idea, but just "harder than we thought it would be".
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Fight them their - or fight them here - you decide which in November.
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I can think of about 1000 things that will fall into this category.
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Mice
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Read the Patent
But Mike is right - the PTO has not done a good job with patent quality, so inventors will try to claim as broadly as possible in order to get a strong property right. Then again, it is the job of any good patent prosecutor to try to claim as much as possible for their client.
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leave offtopic out
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Re: Read the Patent
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touch sensors
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Oh please.
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I'm not sure, but it is hard...
I recently designed a handheld last year designed to work with mutiple touch-sensors and touch screens, and it was a PAIN IN THE ASS getting them to work with any OS at all.
If it had been my idea, and didn't belong to the company I contracted for, I might have been inclined to patent my technique. It's not an obvious thing to be able to do. It requires a good deal of engineering. Trust me.
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i'm sure they learned from creative ...
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Arrggg Defending Apple
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Ever Heard of an iPAQ
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Re: I'm not sure, but it is hard...
I can run up to 8 seporate monitors (with suitable graphics cards and multiplexers) and the standard touchkit software package supports each independantly, or with a slight tweak they can be used in conjunction.
I outfitted a car with two computers and six monitors, four of which were touch screens. The drivers had absolutely no difficulty understanding the multiple screens.
Doing it on a small, embedded device is different, but some of the images in that patent seem downright laptop sized.
As an aside: I agree with the request to keep mild political gripes (and off-topic jabs at unrealted companies) off the boards. We're talking about Apple and it's use (and enforcement) of absurd patents. What's that got to do with Bill Gates, who runs neither MS nor it's patent arm? Learn first, speak second.
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First Strike
This is a failure of the PO, not APPL.
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Re: I DID IT!
But yeah, might as well just patent the idea of having ideas.
You'll probably have to be extremely specific or completely left field thinking to make anything that -doesn't- go against patents. e_e
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forced to patent the ridiculous
A Stupid system!
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Re: when
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My revolutionary idea!
Brilliant!!
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