Apple Patents Page Turn Animation

An anonymous reader sends this quote from the NY Times Bits blog: "If you want to know just how broken the patent system is, just look at patent D670,713, filed by Apple and approved this week by the United States Patent Office. This design patent, titled, 'Display screen or portion thereof with animated graphical user interface,' gives Apple the exclusive rights to the page turn in an e-reader application. ... Apple argued that its patented page turn was unique in that it had a special type of animation other page-turn applications had been unable to create." The article doesn't really make it clear, but this is for the UI design of showing a page being turned, not the actual function of moving from one page to another. That said, the patent itself cites similar animations in Flash from 2004.

Comments

Re:You guys understand this is the design of the G

[larry bagina]

Kind of funny how 99% of "the patent system is broken!!!!111!!!elven!!" examples are actually examples of "I don't understand patents!!".

Here's a story!

Oog the caveman ties a rock to a stick and patents the hammer. Slashdot reports that hitting things with a rock is now patented. Slashdorks claim prior art because they pound nails with their forehead.

Years go by and the patent expires.

Bob Vila the caveman ties a tape measure to a hammer and patents the Craftsman HamMeasure. Slashdot reports that hammers are now patented. Slashdorks claim prior art because they pound nails with their forehead.