The Evolution Of The App Dock: Apple Didn't Invent It And Doesn't Deserve A Patent On It
from the prior-art,-anyone? dept
Earlier this year, there was some buzzing among Apple loyalists that Dell was copying Apple when it launched a "Dell Dock" offering that would highlight what applications were open. The creators of the Dell Dock, a company called Stardock, then put up a fantastic blog post detailing the history and evolution of such docks, which came from many places well before Apple, and each step of the way added a little feature here or there, in a normal evolutionary manner. It was a great post that I had considered writing about, because it really did an excellent job highlighting how these things "evolve" via different companies, all trying to improve on an idea, and why claiming "ownership" or giving a monopoly to one provider was not just pointless, but would likely hinder innovation. I didn't end up writing it up because I got busy and it slipped through the cracks.But I remembered it when I opened up a Slashdot post announcing that Apple had patented the dock, after a long battle with the Patent Office. The patent itself does recount some history of this element of UIs and tries to suggest that Apple's implementation is really unique and non-obvious. But it's difficult to see how anyone could read the real history and evolution of docks, which that Stardock blog post clearly lays out above, and not think that Apple's "innovations" here are the totally obvious next steps of the evolution. It's even more difficult to see how innovation is advanced by granting Apple a monopoly here. Obviously, for many years, innovation in this space occurred because multiple companies were competing with each other to provide a better user interface. So they would one-up each other. Giving Apple a monopoly to stop others from taking the next step in the evolution is putting the brakes on innovation, not helping it along.
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Filed Under: app dock, competition, evolution, innovation, patents
Companies: apple
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Re:
Reading the abstract (the one from the actual patent) and the title for the claim: "User interface for providing consolidation and access"
It would appear that you are incorrect. Both prominently feature the fact that they're patenting a method of consolidation and access for applications, documents, shortcuts, etc.
In bothering to read through the patent, it appears that they simply use the magnification (which is really fairly obvious, though the way Apple does it is particularly nice) to justify the patent. They appear to lay claim to the idea that because they have this single innovation, they deserve a patent on the whole concept.
This patent is tantamount to patenting the concept of a car because you built a more efficient engine. Far too broad.
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Re: Re:
A new engine can have a pretty significant impact on the way a vehicle works and is utilized, though it still makes patent on the car a stupidly far reach.
The Dock, no matter how nice it is, does not have that significant a level of impact on the computer. It is simply a new way of presenting what the computer is doing or can be doing.
It would be more like trying to patent the car because you came up with a new way to light up the dash gauges. Even further of a reach...
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Re:
Actually, despite your snide tone, I did in fact read the claims, as I noted in the actual post, in pointing out that it was for this particular implementation -- the magnification part. I then explained how reading the history of the dock shows that this is an obvious next step in the evolution.
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Re: Re:
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Software patents
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Re: Software patents
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Re: Re: Software patents
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Re: Re: Software patents
You obviously have no working knowledge of the patent or copyright systems so how about you run along and let us adults talk, ok.
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Re: Re: Software patents
- The Internet
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Re: Re: Software patents
- The Internet
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Re: Re: Re: Software patents
Anon Cow: please learn how to use the submit button before claiming to be "The Internet". Thanks!
-guy one
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Re: Software patents
I can see a patent; it's a process not unlike chemical engineering patents which are patentable...
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Re: Re: Software patents
last I checked a picture can be copyrighted and that is definitely not a literary work.
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Let's not forget the other part
I agree with Mike, that patenting "The Dock" or even sections of the dock, will put brakes on innovations, and that's just wrong. Software developers have always added to prior work to make something better, it's something that's happened for years. MOST Developers just want to be given their due for their part of the development process, and that's all good and well. The problem becomes when corporations begin to think that patents equal prestige.
Having Apple doing what IBM and MICROSOFT have done over the past years is ironic, considering how Apple use to be. It's a shame that another great company has fallen to the corporate greed.
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Software
Sorry, but I think they should be able to patent things they did indeed come up with...especially when those features are frequently thought of as being an integral part of something that company or individual is known for.
And Jack - remember that punctuation is your friend, eh?
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Re: Software
Recently a criteria was presented that most software patents would be rejected unless they were for a SPECIFIC piece of hardware; meaning that if it were written for a generic personal computer that anyone could buy at a store, it was likely not going to get a patent. If you wrote some firmware for, say, a Cisco router that did something innovative, it very well could be patentable since a Cisco router isn't a generic PC.
The biggest problem is that unless one is an *experienced* developer, they aren't going to know what concepts already have prior art, or that an idea would be trivial and obvious to someone with more than 3 months into their first programming course. The people in the patent office making those decisions typically have even less experience than that, and typically no experience whatsoever.
In 1985 I wrote what I believe to be the first visual programming environment. I never bothered to patent it because it seemed painfully obvious to me as the next step in innovation and was little more, to me at least, than a hybrid of the new GUI operating systems and a programming environment.
That said, there's enough prior art on the dock that this will be ruled invalid soon enough, and there'll be opportunity since Apple has already started with the cease and desist letters over something THEY DID NOT INVENT OR INNOVATE.
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Clarification
I think you should only be able to patent something you really did come up with, but not something someone else did, or something as broad as the whole dock concept - like the coward said.
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Re: Clarification
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Re: Stardock's history
I agree that all software patents are bad, but if we're going to get into slinging history around, we could at least get it right.
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Re: Re: Stardock's history
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is the dock like the taskbar?
Then when Stardock comes by, say "No not yours. You can't sue us, it's Apple's patent."
Now that you've baited the two against each other, sit back with a bag of popcorn to watch the show. They can't even gang up against you. Any evidence Stardock submitted would be prior art to invalidate Apple's patent, knocking them off the case, and then knocking out the whole case since there's no more patent to infringe on.
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Hardwork rewarded
Apple to me seem to be trying to profit of others ideas which seems to me to be there business plan no different from MS
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Re: Hardwork rewarded
Scott Lithgow wrote:
Just because you've done hard work doesn't mean you're automatically entitled to a reward. The world doesn't owe you a living. That's the difference between working "hard" and working "smart".
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Booo
I swear this weekend I am putting in an application to work at the Patent Office. I am not joking, they need a techie to help starting pushing things in a better direction. So many of the these are so insanely obvious its not even funny. Just adding a computer to something should not make it patentable. How long have magnifiers of some sort been out? 100's if not thousands of years. And this is somehow non-obvious?
I am applying this weekend dang it.
Also, where is that Lennie person from a post yesterday to say that this was absolutely necessary otherwise it would have been kept secret and nobody could've figured out how to do it?
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Re: Booo
I wasted two hours trading posts before I realized it was just a troll... it contradicted the "patent versus secrecy" argument in it's next post.
I should have known anyone who would post 5 two-screen comments was a troll.
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