Another Garbage Patent

*no comment* writes "Literally "garbage patent" that is, Apple was rewarded a patent for the "Garbage" icon in Mac OS X. The patent documents can be found at the USPTO by clicking here. More on this and other Apple patents are in this article over at the macobserver."

Comments

I guess MS can just use

[Rooked_One]

their own company symbol for trash now.

Re:I guess MS can just use

[shellbeach]

I guess MS can just use their own company symbol for trash now

Well, I know I do:

I pulled one of those "designed for Windows98" stickers off a box years ago and stuck it on my kitchen bin ...

Only it's not a very fair comparison - my bin has never crashed in over three years of continuous operation, which is more than I can say for Win98 :)

Microsoft? HELLO?! :)

[BalkanBoy]

Patent the "Start" button!! QUICK QUICK before Jeff Bezos comes out of the woodwork!! :)

Re:Microsoft? HELLO?! :)

[atrus]

Where is the +1 Sad moderation?

Re:Microsoft? HELLO?! :)

[Repton]

I liked this quote from the abstract of the start menu patent:

The taskbar may also be displayed in a mode where it is not displayed [...]

Anti-grouch?

[wembley]

This was probably done in collusion with Children's Television Workshop (CTW) so that they can prevent someone from making an OS X version of "The Grouch", one of the greatest MacOS hacks ever.

It was great. Empty the trash, and Oscar the Grouch would come out of the trashcan singing. Then CTW sued the the muppety pants off the author and it pretty much disappeard.

A way out....

[cybermace5]

There is this possibility: countless children twist it into a legal reason for not having to take the garbage out.

Move over Microsoft

[SlowMovingTarget]

All your icons are belong to us...

What I can't wait for is when Apple patents the space character in file names. Whew! Imagine the royalties on the "Program Files" (c:\Progra~1 to 8.3 folks out there) folder.

This just in: Apple patents the technique of "double-click launching" to launch applications visually.

I'm going to lose Karma on this one.....

[Lord_Slepnir]

Steve Jobs: We need to file some more patents quickly. My stock options are dropping.
Terrified Employee: Well sir...umm...(looks around room) how about our round corners?
Jobs: Already in heavy use. You're fired
Employee 2: How about the idea of color coding computers to go with your decor?
Jobs: Nah, we already cornered the artist market. You're fired.
Employee 3: Well....how about this (picks up trash can)
Jobs: Brilliant! Get a picture of that to the Patent office as soon as possible.

Re:Let's see how this turns out

[BeBoxer]

Will the crowd spew a diatribe against intellectual property in general

How about just a diatribe against the patent office. Did you actually take the time to look at the patent? Probably not. Here, I'll save you the trouble.

The ornamental design for a user interface for computer display, as shown and described.

That's it. And a picture of a trash can, which the patent office would be happy to sell you a copy of. This is an invention? If this is an "invention", then I think I can literally patent my ass. Why not? By this precedent, I should be able to send them a picture of my ass, with the claim "The design for a sitting device as shown and described."

Re:RTFA (as usual)

[smoondog]

One of the most voiced fears is "I'm afraid I'll hit the wrong button and wipe out everything!".

Years ago('94-ish), I was a total PC kiddie and didn't know anything about Mac's. At one point I had to load a program on a mac, and put a floppy in the computer. We spent forever trying to figure out how to eject the disk. Eventually someone told us to trash it, and my answer was, "are you sure?" Of course, it worked and since then I've realized that Mac's are far too logical for me.

-Sean

Re:Wonderful!

[Viking Coder]

The best part about this is that after the patent expires, EVERYONE can use their garbage can icon.

Heh.

real reason..

[Suppafly]

The real reason to patent the garbage can picture is to keep slashdot from choosing to use it to refer to macos in the future instead of the shiny silver apple.

Trash Can Absurdity

[LPetrazickis]

Am I the only one who thinks that dumping floppies into trash should REFORMAT instead of EJECTING?:)

Re:Let's see how this turns out

[Dirtside]

Consulting the chart, it seems that today, we hate... stupid generalizations. Oh, crap! :)

Microsoft has a leg up here!

[callipygian-showsyst]

Unlike wasteful Apple, the folks at Microsoft furnish Windows XP with a recycle bin!

You'd think the Northern California latte liberals at Apple would care more about their environment than Microsoft folks do, but that isn't the case. While Apple's filling up our landfills with garbage bits, Microsoft recycles them so they can be used again.

Re:Microsoft has a leg up here!

[IdahoEv]

While Apple's filling up our landfills with garbage bits, Microsoft recycles them so they can be used again.

No, Micro$oft really is the evil empire. What happens when you recycle garbage? It is sent to a central facility where it gets carefully sorted through and the useful things get picked out to get turned into new products. The facility makes a tidy profit on this.

So, when you dump your homework / old code / other data in M$ recycle bin, it gets sent...

The best thing is, because they call it the recycle bin, they're not even lying about scouring your data for useful stuff!

Sleep well.

Too Easy

[ReadParse]

As patents get sillier, the jokes almost write themselves. I withdraw my joke on the grounds that it's just too easy.

haha

[austad]

I just downloaded the patent to my OS X desktop, and threw it in the garbage. It gave me a warm feeling.