Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Microsoft's Decade-old Patent On Tree-view Mode!

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the weekends-are-fun dept.

BhaKi writes "Remember the Tree-View mode in many file management applications? It's shocking to know that this omnipresent feature was patented by Microsoft back in 1995 (granted in 1997). I'm not very sure about the implications, though. The patent is so general that it can be related to many things from tree-mode to virtual filesystems. Check out claim no. 3 of the patent for the most clear part."

3 of 183 comments (clear)

  1. Why do people link ad-laden patent sites? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    You can get patent results ad-free from Google or straight from the USPTO.

  2. Midnight Commander and Ztree by myspace-cn · · Score: 5, Informative

    Thank god for mc and ztree

  3. Prior art anyone? by ncog · · Score: 5, Informative

    There's so much prior art here it's not funny. For example, Executive Systems first published XTree for DOS (later XTreeGold) in April, 1985. It was the absence of this functionality in MS/DOS that make the functionality so popular. This is just another example of how the software patent system is truly messed up and needs (and hopefully will get) a serious overhaul.