Apple's Billion Dollar Patent & Other Stories From Patentland

DECS writes "It has been widely reported that Apple secured a patent worth a "billion dollars." According to a patent attorney involved in the issue, Apple will be "after every phone company, film maker, computer maker and video producer to pay royalties." The good news is that all the news reports were based on misleading hyperbole. " Don't let the title fool you; the essay is a good background on patents, the horror stories of some of them but also why companies feel compelled to seek patents as a business "safety" precaution.

Comments

Article doesn't identify the patent. Here it is.

[Animats]

So we have an press release about a supposed Apple patent. The article doesn't identify the patent or give the patent number. Then we have a blog entry about the press release about the supposed patent. That doesn't identify the patent. Then we have the Slashdot article about the blog entry about the press release. Which doesn't identify the patent either. The end result is a clueless Slashdot article.

The actual patent is US# 5,864,868 (Contois, January 26, 1999), "Computer control system and user interface for media playing devices". The main claim is:

1. A computer user interface menu selection process for allowing the user to select music to be played on a music device controlled by a computer, comprising the steps of:
a) simultaneously displaying on a display device, at least two individual data fields selected from music categories, composers, artists, and songs;
b) selecting at least one item from at least one of the data fields;
c) in response to step b), redisplaying all data fields not having an item selected therefrom with data related only to the at least one item selected in step b), and simultaneously maintaining all items originally displayed in the data fields with at lest one item selected therefrom;
d) selecting an item in the songs data field in response to step c), and
e) playing the selected song item from step d) on the computer responsive music device.

So it's an interface for a specific format of playlist interaction. Some players might have to change their interfaces a bit. Big deal.

Re:Apple got a patent on not playing games

[be-fan]

Practically identical to PC hardware but much more costly, which is exactly why I stick to PCs, especially now that you can run OSX on just about any PC.The reason most software companies don't port games to mac is because the audience is so much smaller it's just not worth their time and money. Have you looked at Mac prices since the Intel transition? All across the lines, the machines are extremely price-competitive. The iMac and Macbook are within 10% of a comparable PC, and the PowerMac severely undercuts a comparable PC (even if you build it yourself!). Just about the only machine that still carries a premium is the Macbook Pro.