Apple Mines App Store Submissions For Patent Ideas

I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes "Apple has started filing a bunch of patents on mobile applications. That might not be so interesting in and of itself, but if you look closely at the figures in one of the patents, you can see that it's a copy of the third-party Where To? application, which has been on the App Store since at least 2008. There's also a side-by-side comparison which should make it clear that the diagram was copied directly from their app. Even though it's true that the figures are just illustrations of a possible UI and not a part of the claimed invention, it's hard to see how they didn't get some of their ideas from Where To? It might also be the case that Apple isn't looking through the App Store submissions in order to patent other people's ideas, but it's difficult to explain some of these patents if they're not. And with the other patents listed, it's hard to see how old ideas where 'on the internet' has been replaced with the phrase 'on a mobile device' can promote the progress of science and useful arts. This seems like a good time to use Peer to Patent."

Comments

Mmmm...

[Iburnaga]

Smells like theft.

And the phrase of the day is....

[jvillain]

Class action law suite.

Re:There is only one word for this

[mysidia]

Go look at the claim in the patent application

Cannot. It is forbidden for me (and most software engineers) to even look at software patents/software patent applications. In the event that I were infringing on one, it could become willful infringement the moment I was found to have seen the patent in question.

Anyways, we are not discussing just a patent application, but a report by the author of the Article of Apple allegedly copying designs from apps in the app store to patent claims.

Specifically... the diagram was copied directly from their app.

Re:SUBMISSION IS WRONG: Link here

[PitaBred]

Just because it's legal doesn't mean it's right. Copying someone else's UI as an "example" of what you are patenting is VERY ethically bankrupt.

Algorithm

[Tablizer]

it's hard to see how old ideas where 'on the internet' has been replaced with the phrase 'on a mobile device' can promote the progress of science and useful arts.

Slightly updated oldy-but-goody:

// Patent Maker
  h = openFile("ordinary_common_activity.txt");
  while (w = readNextWord(h)) {
    if (random(0.0,1.0) > 0.96) {
      w = w + " on a mobile device ";
    }
    print(w);
  }