Apple Attempts to Patent Pre-Existing Display Software Idea 256
Nuclear Elephant writes "Apple appears to be taking ideas from commercial software already being sold and is attempting to patent the
concepts as their own. According to Apple Insider, Apple has recently filed a patent application for a notification screen on the iPhone. The only problem with this is that Intellisync has been using this concept in their popular iPhone notification screen software for over a year now, and it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that this is a clear rip-off. Apple recently became famous (or infamous) for stealing other people's ideas when they rolled out their Dashboard in Mac OS X, which had many similarities to a desktop widget program named the Konfabulator, which later became Yahoo widgets. The case here isn't a simple hijacking of an idea, however — Apple is applying for a patent on Intelliscreen's concept, which could be detrimental to the original manufacturer of the software, who is actively selling it for Jailbroken iPhones"
Avast! (Score:5, Funny)
Avast, Apple! Ye scurvy dogs may have forgotten that we be havin' this provision in our rules statin' that something ye patent must not already be bein' made by someone else.
Foolish landlubbers need to walk th' plank, says I!
Re:Right... (Score:3, Funny)
Time to think (Score:1, Funny)
Ok /. let's put our heads together and think this through.
How can we blame Microsoft for this?
You are right, that is the wrong plan.
Ok /. let's put our heads together and think this through.
How can we spin this so it looks like Apple is not doing exactly what we hate Microsoft for?
Re:Right... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Time to think (Score:1, Funny)
so it looks like Apple is not doing exactly what we hate Microsoft for?
No, I assure you. There are other reasons to hate MS.
Re:Avast! (Score:3, Funny)
Avast, Apple! Ye scurvy dogs may have forgotten that we be havin' this provision in our rules statin' that something ye patent must not already be bein' made by someone else.
Arrr! Ye be drinkin' too much from the barrel o' rum if ye think the USPTO reads the parchment yonder patent application is writ on.
Ay, matey, thar be the hole in yer hull. Too many patents, not enough eyepatch-covered eyes to be readin' 'em.
Re:Way to go Apple! (Score:1, Funny)
Damn. Now that you explained it, I see exactly how innovative this really is.
Arrgh!!! Apple Plunderin' me Treasure (Score:4, Funny)
Ye landlubbers never seen such a frightful sight as the Flyin Apple on the starboard with the Skull-n-Bones flyin.
Ay she's a fast ship the Flyin Apple. Her hull like dull silver. No good ever come of her. I've seen her come aboard a ship in the Carribbean and all the crew were turned to shredded paper!
ARRRRR!!
Re:Avast! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:It's sad... (Score:3, Funny)
Whatever, it's sad when a phone running a Microsoft OS is more open than one running UNIX. :p
Just be glad it's not a phone running Solaris.
anti-Apple insanity on slashdot (Score:1, Funny)
If anyone is to blame for this it is clearly the intellisync folks. Apple needs to protect its source of innovation or else companies like Microsoft and Red Hat will steal their ideas and profit from them. The intellisync folks knew this and yet persist in their complaints against Apple. How outrageous.
Think DIFFERENT! Think BETTER. Think APPLE!!!!!
Apple declares: "OK, we're evil" (Score:4, Funny)
CUPERTINO, Transylvania, Friday - After bricking unlocked iPhones, kicking applications off the iPhone store that might even slightly compete with iTunes in the far future, and filing a wave of patents on basic well-known computer science, Apple Inc. today filed a 10-Q with the Securities Exchange Commission declaring that it was openly adopting Evil(tm) [today.com] as a corporate policy.
"Fuck it," said Steve Jobs to an audience of soul-mortgaged thralls, "we're evil. But our stuff is sooo good. You'll keep taking our abuse. You love it, you worm. Because our stuff is great. It's shiny and it works. It's not like you'll go back to a Windows Mobile phone. Ha! Ha!â
Steve Ballmer of Microsoft was incensed at the news. "Our evil is better than anyone's evil! No-one sweats the details of evil like Microsoft! Where's your antitrust trial, you polo-necked bozo? We've worked hard on our evil! Our Zune's as evil as an iPod any day! I won't let my kids use a lesser evil! We're going to do an ad about that! I'll be in it! With Jerry Seinfeld! Beat that! Asshole."
Sergey Brin of Google said, "Of course, we're still not evil. You can trust us on this. Every bit of data about you, your life and the house you live in is strictly a secret between you and our marketing department. But, hypothetically, if we were evil, it's not like you're going to use Windows Live Search. Ha! Ha! I'm sorry, that's my 'spreading good cheer' laugh. Really."