Steve Jobs Patents "The Dock"

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."

CDE?

[goaliemn (19761)]

you have to be kidding.. CDE has had this for years, if not decades..

Re:CDE?

[furball (2853)]

You mean NextStep has had this for years, if not decades.

Actually, they already have.

[littleghoti (637230)]

/. story here [slashdot.org]

Re:CDE?

[mollymoo (202721)]

Don't PCs already have a dock? "The bar of icons that sits at the bottom or side of a Mac and provides easy access to Apple applications."

The sounds like a description of the start menu, and its corresponding bar.

Yes it does. There are bazillions of patents with similar names because they cover similar subjects. With only a brief description of a patent it's impossible to know whether it is indeed novel. Fortunately, patents are more than a brief description. The Dock patent does into great detail covering the magnification feature. It's easy to trash a patent by looking at the title and saying "it's been done before". But when you actually read it, it becomes a bit less obvious the novel things the patent claims have actually been done before. Does Claim 120 ring any bells?:

120. The method of claim 117 wherein each icon is displayed within a corresponding tile area having two opposite edges that are respectively located at distances d.sub.1 and d.sub.2 from said cursor, and said other icons are magnified by the factor 1+(d.sub.2'-d.sub.1')/(d.sub.2-d.sub.1), where: d.sub.1=S.times.sine(.pi./2.times.d.sub.1/W) and d.sub.2'=S.times.sine(.pi./2.times.d.sub.2/W), where W is equal to said defined distance, and (S=((H-h)/2)/sine(.pi..times.(h/2)/(W.times.2)), where H is a magnified size for one dimension of said one icon, and h is a default display size for said one dimension.

That's some details of how that nice "hump" is generated when you use the magnification feature. Had you seen specifically that before 1999?

Re:CDE?

[clone53421 (1310749)]

more like the quick launch bar...which granted appeared only in XP.

More like Windows 95 [google.com]...

Adding Applications to Internet Explorer 4.0's Quick Launch Toolbar

Inside Microsoft Windows 95

A publication of The Cobb Group

Published March 1998

If you've installed Internet Explorer 4.0, you've probably noticed the new Quick Launch toolbar sitting between the Start button and the taskbar, as shown in Figure A. The icons on this handy toolbar make it very easy to launch some of Internet Explorer's applications. Once you get in the habit of using the Quick Launch toolbar, you'll quickly appreciate its convenience and efficiency. [...]

Re:CDE?

[Froze (398171)]

I can recall using CDE on an AIX box just over ten years ago. It was a well established part of the interface at that time. Anyone actually know the inception date of CDE's dock?

Re:CDE?

[GauteL (29207)]

CDE [wikipedia.org] came out in 1993. The MacOS dock has its origin in NeXT [wikipedia.org] who was later purchased by Apple, leading to Steve Jobs coming back to Apple.

Nextstep [wikipedia.org] was first released in 1989 with previews all the way back to 1986 (according to Wikipedia anyway).

Thus, Nextstep does seem to preceed CDE by quite a few years and with NeXT Apple purchased these IP rights.

What this means for other OSes and Dock implementations I don't know.

Re:CDE?

[Henriok (6762)]

Patent application #5146556 [uspto.gov] from 1992 is clearly the precursor to the Dock. Filed by Steve Jobs et al, while at NeXT.

Re:CDE?

[speedtux (1307149)]

Thus, Nextstep does seem to preceed CDE by quite a few years and with NeXT Apple purchased these IP rights.

"These" IP rights? What IP rights would that be? Even if NeXT had been the first company to do this in the 80's, they would have had to apply for patents then, not more than a decade later.

Second, there were equivalent constructions for X and Smalltalk. Oh, and in case you were wondering, both of those predated NeXT and NeXT liberally copied from both of them.

The Death of Y'z Dock

[eldavojohn (898314)]

I don't think this was covered on Slashdot and I wish I could find a better citation than this but it's been said [neowin.net] that Apple has threatened makers of "docks" for PCs with lawsuits. I can't verify that but I do know that I downloaded and installed a beta program called Y'z Dock [softpedia.com] which was developed by a now defunct crew [designtechnika.com].

The Y'z Dock software was really really slick and very comparable to Apple's. You can still find the beta distros on pages like Fileforum and other third party hosters (I won't link because you will have to use those at your own risk).

I don't think anyone in the community ever thought they could get away with mimicking the dock ... but my default response to software patents is that they're broken. Those of you that use Windows will never know the dock because Steve Jobs doesn't want it that way. Also, I'm kind of pissed that "a PC" means Windows ... it means personal computer, does it not? Isn't my Linux machine a personal computer? I hate that. But that's a totally offtopic rant triggered by marketing from all camps.

Re:The Death of Y'z Dock

[Samantha Wright (1324923)]

This is probably actually a move to advance that agenda--Apple's paranoia about its software running on generic hardware actually extends to any representation of its interface running on generic hardware. There have been about a dozen Windows dock applications under various names, many of which have gotten cease-and-desist orders. Aqua-Soft [aqua-soft.org] has been something of a hub for this kind of stuff in the past, and their various policies and histories are very prominent indirect evidence of exactly what the landscape looks like. (They used to host things more directly, if I recall.)

I wonder if StarDock will come under fire for ObjectDock.

Re:The Death of Y'z Dock

[Joe U (443617)]

I don't know why that went out of style

It completely went out of style when:

Hi, I'm a Mac.
And I'm a PC.

The worst part is

[Shin-LaC (1333529)]

Inventors: Ording; Bas (Sunnyvale, CA), Jobs; Steven P. (Palo Alto, CA), Lindsay; Donald J. (Mountain View, CA)

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.

Not a patent on the dock

[larry bagina (561269)]

Can you even bother to read the abstract?

To provide greater access and consolidation to frequently used items in the graphical user interface, a userbar is established which includes a plurality of item representations.

Not the patentable part...

To permit a greater number of items to reside in the userbar, a magnification function can be provided which magnifies items within the userbar when they are proximate the cursor associated with the graphical user interface.

Ah, yes, there we go. The patent is for rollover magnification of the items in the dock.

Good!

[pmontra (738736)]

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 :-)

What the patent covers

[radarjd (931774)]

Here are the patent's independent claims [wikipedia.org]:

1. A computer system comprising: a display; a cursor for pointing to a position within said display; a bar rendered on said display and having a plurality of tiles associated therewith; and a processor for varying a size of at least one of said plurality of tiles on said display when said cursor is proximate said bar on said display and for repositioning others of said plurality of tiles along said bar to accommodate the varied size of said one tile.

Roughly, increasing the size of the icon which the mouse is over, and repositioning icons around it.

36. A computer system comprising: a display; a cursor for pointing to a position within said display; a userbar rendered on said display and having a plurality of tiles associated therewith; and a processor for varying a position of at least one of said plurality of tiles on said display when said cursor is proximate said bar on said display, in accordance with a predefined relationship between an effect width W, a default height h of said at least one of said plurality of tiles and a selected maximum height H of said at least one of said plurality of tiles wherein said predefined relationship includes a function S defined as: S=((H-h)/2)/sine(.pi..times.(h+2)/(W.times.2)).

Roughly, a bar in a gui where the position of icons nearby the mouse is modified according to the formula given.

65. A computer system comprising: a display; a cursor for pointing to a position within said display; a userbar rendered on said display and having a plurality of tiles associated therewith; and a processor for varying a position of at least one of said plurality of tiles on said display when said cursor is proximate said bar on said display, wherein said processor displays a label associated with said at least one of said plurality of tiles with a first predetermined fade-in rate when said cursor moves proximate said at least one of said plurality of tiles from another of said plurality of tiles, and with a second predetermined fade-in rate when said cursor moves proximate said at least one of said plurality of tiles from outside a region associated with said userbar.

Roughly, displaying the name of a program (by fading it in) when you run the mouse over the associated icon from outside the dock.

67. A computer system comprising: a display; a cursor for pointing to a position within said display; a userbar rendered on said display and having a plurality of tiles associated therewith; and a processor for varying a position of at least one of said plurality of tiles on said display when said cursor is proximate said bar on said display, wherein said processor displays a label associated with said at least one of said plurality of tiles with a first predetermined fade-in rate when said cursor moves proximate said at least one of said plurality of tiles from another of said plurality of tiles, and wherein said processor fades out said label when said cursor moves away from said at least one of said plurality of tiles using a first fade out rate when said cursor moves into another of said at least one of said plurality of tiles, and using a second fade out rate when said cursor moves out of a region associated with said bar.

Roughly, displaying the name of a program (by fading it in) when you run the mouse over the associated icon from another icon.

69. A method for displaying items in a graphical user interface comprising the steps of: providing a plurality of said items in a region of said graphical user interface, each of said items having a default height associated therewith; moving a cursor along said region; and selectively magnifying at least one of said items closest to said cursor to a first level and magnifying items proximate to said one item to other levels less than said first level.

LISTEN...some of you are not paying attention

[somethingwicked (260651)]

Key pieces of this story:

It's Apple.
It's Jobs.

It's therefore NOT eligible for scrutiny.

Move along...

OH NOES!

[Aphoxema (1088507)]

Oh shit! This means we can't have icons both showing a task that can be opened and one that already is in one icon!

Oh well! I'm not sure how we'll survive, but those crazy developers are pretty resourceful, I'm sure we'll find some other way to launch applications and check if they're still open later.

Re:I havent seen Apple's version

[onecheapgeek (964280)]

Reading the patent, it specifices a magnification effect on the icon the mouse is over.

Re:I havent seen Apple's version

[Jason Levine (196982)]

So basically, CSS Dock [ndesign-studio.com] is now illegal despite the fact that it is just JavaScript (written using jQuery) and CSS? Great. Now when I'm doing web development, I need to make sure I'm not stepping on the patents of people in completely different arenas.

Re:Oh.. you mean the Quick Start Bar?

[morgan_greywolf (835522)]

No, he means the 'system tray', which is the closest equivalent to 'the dock' that exists on Windows. 'The dock' has been part of the Macintosh OS and user interface since its introduction in 1984. There have been plenty of imitators, such as the GNOME System Notification Area and The Windows 9x System Tray and the 'dock area' in so many other environments -- KDE, NeXTStep, OpenStep/GNUStep, XFCE, CDE, etc., but I don't think any of them predate the Mac's 'dock'.

Re:Oh.. you mean the Quick Start Bar?

[by Anonymous Coward]

Windows doesn't have any widget that gives you access to both running apps and common apps in the same place. A task bar combined with a quick launch bar is slightly different, as you'll end up with 2 icons for something launched from the quick launch bar, one representing the running app, and the other prepared to launch another instance. Mac's interface is different from windows.

So what if it's trivial?

[tepples (727027)]

That's an awfully trivial difference.

Which is exactly what makes it patentable in the United States.

Re:Oh.. you mean the Quick Start Bar?

[CountBrass (590228)]

Not in usability land either. It's those kind of small difference that are found throughout OSX make the difference between an average UI and a great one.

Yes I know OSX isn't perfect (I can rant for days about the awfulness of Safari) but to paraphrase Winston Churchill: OSX is the worst operating system, except for all of the others.

Re:Oh.. you mean the Quick Start Bar?

[elrous0 (869638)]

Actually, I base all my purchasing decisions on what John Hodgman tells me. Though this has led me astray many, many times; I still trust his judgment. He is an expert, after all.