Steve Jobs Patents "The Dock" 580
Posted
by
CmdrTaco
from the what's-next dept.
from the what's-next dept.
theodp writes "If you're a PC, you may be unfamiliar with The Dock, the bar of icons that sits at the bottom or side of a Mac and provides easy access to Apple applications. But don't count on it becoming a standard on the PC. On Tuesday, the USPTO awarded Apple — and inventor Steve Jobs — a patent for their User Interface for Providing Consolidation and Access, aka 'The Dock,' after a rather lengthy nine-year wait."
The worst part is (Score:5, Funny)
Since when does the comma take precedence over the semicolon? Normally, that would be read as a list of four items: Ording, Jobs Bas, Lindsay Steven P., and Donald J. The fact that such vile abuse of punctuation is standard as the USPTO is irrefutable proof that the entire institution is corrupt.
Re:Oh.. you mean the Quick Start Bar? (Score:3, Funny)
You know, that area on the windows tool bar that gives you quick access to applications? Been there since Windows95 I think..
ooh! can Microsoft patent the icon? How bout right click? Well, I'm sure everyone can agree that they can patent the "crash".
Good! (Score:5, Funny)
Good! That row of icons that I never liked will be relegated to the Apple desktop and won't clutter anymore the screens of any other OS :-)
Re:The Death of Y'z Dock (Score:2, Funny)
People used to say "IBM PC-compatible" or more simply "IBM PC" in casual chatting. I don't know why that went out of style, because it does differentiate the difference between IBM PC-compatible, IBM PC, or Macintosh PC, or Amiga PC, or Commodore PC, or Atari PC, or......
A better way would be to use the processor type to set Apple hardware and OS apart from the others. You could say Apple vs. x86 machines or even Intel based machi....
Oh wait. Nevermind.
Re:Oh.. you mean the Quick Start Bar? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:What does this mean (Score:2, Funny)
LISTEN...some of you are not paying attention (Score:5, Funny)
Key pieces of this story:
It's Apple.
It's Jobs.
It's therefore NOT eligible for scrutiny.
Move along...
Steve Jobs' Dock (Score:1, Funny)
Face it, Steve Jobs does not want anyone else to have a dock. By eliminating all other docks, he will officially have the biggest dock of them all. He will wave his dock in your face every chance he gets just to show off his massive dock.
So what if it's trivial? (Score:5, Funny)
That's an awfully trivial difference.
Which is exactly what makes it patentable in the United States.
o_0 (Score:4, Funny)
Good Lord, Steve. Just patent PURE SHINY EVIL [today.com] and be done with it.
Authentic Apple iEvil! Not that ersatz Zune Evil, hahahahaha! Get only the best evil!
Re:CDE? (Score:5, Funny)
PC. On Tuesday, the USPTO awarded Apple â" and inventor Steve Jobs â" a patent for their User Interface for Providing Consolidation and Access, aka 'The Dock', after a rather lengthy nine-year wait."
Didn't everyone already have a dock 9 years ago ?
Actually, I believe it's much longer ago than that. Otis Redding has prior art on that one.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzrXc68gNjQ [youtube.com]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/(Sittin'_on)_the_Dock_of_the_Bay [wikipedia.org]
I know, I know, but what a great old song though. Just thought I'd add a little humor to a dry discussion and a little music to everyones' day. :)
Cheers!
Strat
Re:Oh.. you mean the Quick Start Bar? (Score:4, Funny)
In my Dock there are little indicators that tell you if an app is running or not. Maybe you need glasses?
Re:CDE? (Score:3, Funny)
Sheesh, at this point, why don't they save themselves the trouble of writing a patent claims list and just cite their source code instead? Or if they wanted to obfuscate it, why not claim "a procedure consisting of the following assembly instructions: ...".
I wonder how much money I could make writing a routine to translate source code into patent claim descriptions. I smell an esoteric programming language.
Re:More like windows 3.1 (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Oh.. you mean the Quick Start Bar? (Score:3, Funny)
Its one thing to criticize software patents in general, but you shouldn't get specific with criticisms unless you know what you're talking about... it weakens the arguments you may be making.
You just described a novel process for responding to Slashdot articles.
I've never seen such an approach used here before, you should patent it before someone else does.
precedent for other patents (Score:1, Funny)
I think the patent covers the general effect of producing a dock like, linear object and setting up the icons to magnify in a sinusoidal like fashion. This means my 2 ideas are still outside the scope of this patent!
Cube Dock - why restrict yourself to a line of icons when you can have a 3D grid where it magnifies space (opposite of a gravity field) .. darn, now that I said it, someone is going to patent them before me. At least I still have 20 years to use it.
president
And for drunk people...
Flee Dock - where it makes it harder for drunk people to click on the icons by shrinking them or making the icon move away form the cursor slowly.
Re:Oh.. you mean the Quick Start Bar? (Score:3, Funny)
Damn it! I must have missed my turn.
Re:CDE? (Score:5, Funny)
You're choice really.
Why, you're right? I am choice!