Skip to main content ↑ ↓

Notice

Please note that most of the software linked on this forum is likely to be safe to use. If you are unsure, feel free to ask in the relevant topics, or send a private message to an administrator or moderator. To help curb the problems of false positives, or in the event that you do find actual malware, you can contribute through the article linked here.
Topic: Apple files patent on iPod interface (Read 4364 times) previous topic - next topic
0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Apple files patent on iPod interface

I thought this News.com article interesting about Apple filing a patent on its user interface on the iPod:

http://news.com.com/2100-1041_3-5181088.html?tag=nefd_top

Will this mean, if granted, Dell, Microsoft, RCA/Thompson and other makers won't be able to make portable audio/video players with similar menu systems without paying a licensing fee to Apple? Any chance of this succeeding?

Apple files patent on iPod interface

Reply #1 –
Quote
Any chance of this succeeding?

High chances. Even Amazon's 1-click system (that Apple licensed, BTW) is patented.

Apple files patent on iPod interface

Reply #3 –
Amerikanern sind dumm™
If I'll ever move to the USA, I'll patent computer and start collecting money because some guy at the patent office wasn't smart enough to understand what my patent application really meant.

Apple files patent on iPod interface

Reply #4 –
Save that in order for the patent to be granted and protected, Apple would need to show (should it ever arise in court) that until their patent was filed, no one else had previously used a system similar enough to theirs to be judged an infringement. If supposed violations occurred before the patent was ever filed, or even potentially before Apple's system was introduced to the public, the claim is highly likely - even with Apple's deep pockets and talented lawyers - to be shot down.

  Regardless, they may still get the patent... but a patent, contrary to popular belief, is not legally the right to the idea described therein; it is the right to legally pursue remedy, if you feel someone else has appropriated your idea. In that light, it makes perfect sense for Apple to file such an application. But it's surprising they had not already done so, given their history with such issues!

    - M.

Apple files patent on iPod interface

Reply #5 –
i think they deserve it.

can anyone name another device with that sort of interface?

Apple files patent on iPod interface

Reply #6 –
Quote
i think they deserve it.
can anyone name another device with that sort of interface?


It looks pretty broad to me, but I'm certainly no patent attorney.
Quote
1. A method of assisting user interaction with a multimedia asset player by way of a hierarchically ordered user interface, comprising: displaying a first order user interface having a first list of user selectable items; receiving a user selection of one of the user selectable items; and automatically transitioning to and displaying a second order user interface based upon the user selection.


Seems overly if not unecessarily broad, and that's only the first claim...

Apple files patent on iPod interface

Reply #7 –
We're talking selective directory structure here, right?

I doubt they could get a patent on such a thing her in Europe.
But if they already have a patent on the 1-click-technology I could easily be wrong.

Apple files patent on iPod interface

Reply #8 –
that was amazon with the one click patent, not apple

did apple have a patent on their gui before their failed suit against ms? if they did not, would they still have failed if they did?

Apple files patent on iPod interface

Reply #9 –
I wonder who proofread the abstract...
Quote
a [...] user interface are provided.


Anyway, there must be prior art to this, right? 2002... What else was out there then? Rio Karma? Zen Jukebox? I don't know their menu system though...

All these stoopid patents make me

Apple files patent on iPod interface

Reply #10 –
Consider that there is another logical reason Apple would want to patent their iPod user interface: They oversee one of the largest online music stores around, selling content which - in terms of portable players - is only playable on an iPod (without modification of some sort, that is), and they have also arranged to support the content of the most prominent online audiobook store... all of which places them in an ideal position to license iPod compatible firmware to other device manufacturers.

  Now, if you designed a portable device that was almost single-handedly shaping the public perception of downloadable audio content, and knew that the majority of the decoding of that content was actually done by a physical processor used in any number of other portable devices, wouldn't you want to get a jump on the others and make it easier for them to license your system than to design their own?

    - M.

Apple files patent on iPod interface

Reply #11 –
Quote
Amerikanern sind dumm™
If I'll ever move to the USA, I'll patent computer and start collecting money because some guy at the patent office wasn't smart enough to understand what my patent application really meant.

Erm, this has nothing to do with stupid people working in that patent office.  Just about anything can be patented in the US because of increasingly protectionist legislation (the free market shit they claim is total BS, the US is anything but a free market and NAFT is anything but a free trade agreenment).  More patents ~ more profits for the big corporations and more expenses for the average person, a trade the US government will make happily.
gentoo ~amd64 + layman | ncmpcpp/mpd | wavpack + vorbis + lame

Apple files patent on iPod interface

Reply #12 –
Quote
Isn't that sick? 


I agree with you on this !!  Worse, then they file a VERY-VERY Broad claims to their "invention" !!! I wondered how the judge rule in this kind of patent infringement case?

Apple files patent on iPod interface

Reply #13 –
Quote
I wondered how the judge rule in this kind of patent infringement case?

Any way the big corporation wants the judge to rule .  Companies like Apple are the true rulers of the US (and many other developed nations, Canada included) not the democratically elected officials.

edit:  Yes it is sick, but it should not be any surprise.
gentoo ~amd64 + layman | ncmpcpp/mpd | wavpack + vorbis + lame

Apple files patent on iPod interface

Reply #14 –
What I meant was like in the design of a car, writing a patent will include the designs of the wheel.. Isn't this just reinventing of the wheel again?

I did attend some classes that taught me how to write patents and I asked a similar question.. Do you know what is the reply? "Just claim everything.. including the WHEELS !!! " :sick

Apple files patent on iPod interface

Reply #15 –
What I meant was like in the design of a car, writing a patent will include the designs of the wheel.. Isn't this just reinventing of the wheel again?

I did attend some classes that taught me how to write patents and I asked a similar question.. Do you know what is the reply? "Just claim everything.. including the WHEELS !!! " 

Apple files patent on iPod interface

Reply #16 –
Dont forget that many patents are only filed to avoid that other companies try to charge you for having infringed their patents !!

I once read this very interesting article in the wallstreet journal, where interviews where held with some of the big guys from the computer industry, and they all said that most of the patents in the software scene are never filed to protect a market or a software, in fact they EXPECT most of their patents to fail in court, its the other way around ....... paying a patent lawyer to check other, existing patents for infringement by their own stuff does cost the same than applying a new patent  ......

Apple files patent on iPod interface

Reply #17 –
I heard some rumor that Microsoft would be going to patent the One and the Zero... 01001011...

Apple files patent on iPod interface

Reply #18 –
Quote
Dont forget that many patents are only filed to avoid that other companies try to charge you for having infringed their patents !!

I once read this very interesting article in the wallstreet journal, where interviews where held with some of the big guys from the computer industry, and they all said that most of the patents in the software scene are never filed to protect a market or a software, in fact they EXPECT most of their patents to fail in court, its the other way around ....... paying a patent lawyer to check other, existing patents for infringement by their own stuff does cost the same than applying a new patent  ......

Richard Stallman speech:

http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/audio/audio.html#CAMB2002

(good performance - interesting and entertaining)

Transcript:

http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/stallman-patents.html

Apple files patent on iPod interface

Reply #19 –
Quote
I heard some rumor that Microsoft would be going to patent the One and the Zero... 01001011...

AHAHAHAH! OMG, you are so funny!!!!!



Anyway...

Apple might also be trying to protect themselves from stuff like this:
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....wtopic=17888&hl

They have a very powerful brand - here in Brazil iPod is becoming synonym to "Portable compressed audio player", and I wonder if the same isn't happening in other places. It's only proper they try to protect their brand.

Apple files patent on iPod interface

Reply #20 –
Thanks folks.. Thanks for your clarifications..
 

Apple files patent on iPod interface

Reply #21 –
Well, they've already patented the revolving scroll wheel on the iPods and that's bad enough