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Microsoft's Decade-old Patent On Tree-view Mode!
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."
provided a navigable file system browser for DOS - tree view of directory in the left pane, list of files in the currently selected directory on the right.
It was a best-selling product, too.
A few years later (but before 1995), IIRC Lotus Notes had a navigational pane in its client. I doubt it was even the first app to use that - it was just sort of common wisdom among UI designers at the time.
That's not just a problem with software patents. In every industry that exists, people patent stuff that others invented (but didn't patent) and have been using for years. I know a few people in the chemical industry, and they say this practice is pretty common. Patent something your competitors are doing, then threaten your competitors clients to not buy from you instead of your competitors, because you own the patent, and they are breaking the law.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
I notice a lot of people tend to make really really really generic patents these days, presumably to give them more control over who they get to sue, but when it comes to Prior art, does just one instance invalidate the whole patent, or does it only invalidate certain aspects of it?
+1 IDisagreeSoHeMustBeATrollOrAnAstroturferOrAShill
If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe. - Carl Sagan