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Apple Wins Mobile Patent On Displaying Lists, Documents

walterbyrd writes "Apple yesterday was granted Patent no. 8,223,134 for 'Portable electronic device, method, and graphical user interface for displaying electronic lists and documents.' According to the patent's description, the technology relies upon a touch-screen display and includes both the function for displaying lists and documents, and how they look on a mobile product."

16 of 306 comments (clear)

  1. I don't get it by slashmydots · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I don't quite see the business model of filing an idiotically general patent, waiting around, suing someone for using it, spending millions defending it in court, and getting the patent thrown out and paying the competitor's legal fees.

    1. Re:I don't get it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

      Congratulations, you discovered another method of being an asshole! Yes, please share it with the rest of the market and ultimately make the consumer suffer. Or can you not hear me over the sounds of profits jingling in your pocketbook?

    2. Re:I don't get it by LordLucless · · Score: 4, Insightful

      How about the business model of filing an idiotically general patent, suing a new entrant to your market before they have millions of dollars to defend themselves in court, sucking their coffers dry and driving them out of the market, thus ensuring your market position?

      --
      Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean there isn't an invisible demon about to eat your face
    3. Re:I don't get it by MacGyver2210 · · Score: 1, Insightful

      And I'm sorry, they're suing *Microsoft* for anti-competitive business practices? How is this not the definition of an antitrust situation?

      --
      If the only way you can accept an assertion is by faith, then you are conceding that it can't be taken on its own merits
  2. Re:who owns the uspo? by Tancred · · Score: 5, Insightful

    We (U.S. citizens) do, and we should be telling our congresscritters that this has to stop.

  3. New Method by Archangel+Michael · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ________ with a touch interface! Patent awarded!

    --
    Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
  4. Re:who owns the uspo? by BlueStrat · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You've wasted time in your life that you'll never get back... "Hopefully soon to be" is not "is"... try speaking to the current congressperson...

    You mean continue talking to the guys that routinely ignore their constituents, lie to us in the face of obvious factual contradictions, and only listen to those throwing hookers, bags of cash, and coke at them?

    That's worked so well so far, hasn't it?

    The definition of insanity comes to mind.

    Toss all incumbents out. Demand term limits. Eliminate career politicians.

    Strat

    --
    Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.
  5. Re:don't hate the player hate the game by SurfsUp · · Score: 4, Insightful

    And what is wrong with hating the hateful player that plays the hateful game? Apple has gone out of its way to make itself perfectly hateful so I for one must comply.

    --
    Life's a bitch but somebody's gotta do it.
  6. What did she agree to do? by Taco+Cowboy · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Okay, so your soon-to-be congress-woman candidate gets elected and becomes a real congress-woman

    What she agrees to do now?

    I mean, what can you expect _anyone_ in the Congress to do, while the USPO is protected by corporations, patent trolls, and the lawyer union?

    --
    Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
  7. Re:who owns the uspo? by Jeremi · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Toss all incumbents out. Demand term limits. Eliminate career politicians.

    Be careful what you wish for -- there's no reason to expect that the replacement politicians would be any less corrupt than the current ones, and every reason to expect that none of them would know what the hell they were doing for the first year of their first term in office. The result would be a completely dysfunctional government after every election.

    The goal shouldn't simply be to have new representatives, the goal should be to have good representatives. And the way to get good representatives is to change the electoral system so that the path to getting elected isn't "raise the most money", but rather "best represent the views of the largest number of constituents". Only then will have you have politicians who are motivated to listen to people rather than to money.

    --


    I don't care if it's 90,000 hectares. That lake was not my doing.
  8. Re:who owns the uspo? by I_am_Jack · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Toss all incumbents out. Demand term limits. Eliminate career politicians.

    Because of course anyone who replaces them will spring from the forehead of Athena, walk on water then turn it into wine, poop vanilla ice cream, and give us all sweet fuzzy kittens to make us happy when we're sad.

    Why not try to create a better informed electorate? One which understands that software patents deter competition and stifle innovation.

  9. Re:Patent Experts by drkstr1 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Who the fuck cares what it says? You shoud not be able to patent a god damn UI concept. I don't care how detailed the patent describes it. (I assume you are the same AC farther up, exclaiming how detailed the patent is, like that somehow fucking matters) ...ending rant before my BP spikes...

    --
    Fanboy Status: Apache Flex, C#, Eclipse, KDE, Pirate Party, Ron Paul, Slackware, Windows 7
  10. Re:who owns the uspo? by erroneus · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Many of us do... the problem is the other "legal personhoods" speak louder and more frequently and with more money.

  11. Re:Patent Experts by StripedCow · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You shoud not be able to patent a god damn UI concept.

    Indeed. Imagine somebody patenting the steering wheel of a car, or the order of the pedals, or the order of the gears. That would be ridiculous. You'd never be able to switch brands of car.

    Now besides USER-interfaces, I think actually that one should not be able to patent interfaces in general. Because any patent in this area will block interoperability and, as a result, innovation.

    --
    If Pandora's box is destined to be opened, *I* want to be the one to open it.
  12. Re:who owns the uspo? by Digicaf · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The result would be a completely dysfunctional government after every election.

    If only we should be so lucky.

  13. Re:The "A Better Informed Electorate" oxymoron by JazzLad · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Then they deserve the government they get.

    But what about the rest of us?

    --
    "If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear." - Every fascist, ever