How To Conquer The World
Two steps forward; one step back. The Sacred J must be channelling Nikita Khrushchev
There is no "PatentGate." That's the word from FutureTap, the company which The Reg reported last Friday was concerned about Apple's lifting of the look-and-feel from its flagship app and including an illustration of it in a recently published patent application. "Apple is contemplating steps to attribute the screenshot in the …
Apple is seeking patent on a process and using a variety of apps as examples to illustrate where it could be used.
The use of the image in of Where to...? would almost certainly fall within the bounds of fair use under US law. It was pretty bad manners not to credit it, but not illegal and not what El Reg, among others claimed it to be.
As the Man From Apple says:
"The patent application in question does not claim as inventive the pictured user interface nor the general concept of an integrated travel services application".
This is presumably some sort of method and process application, and is seeking to protect only some combination of stuff running on an iSomething. The only people who need to worry about this are those who want to write apps to do the same thing on an iPants.
As to whether this is inventive, YMMV. Remember, the US is the country that has granted 5 (US) patents on perpetual motion machines, and on all elephant-shaped buildings. True.
It's the threat of litigation whether or not you can prove your point of unpatentable, could you in all seriousness take on the bank balance by litigating against Apple. Aye, there's the rub! Yes you could screw me if you could afford to screw me but because you can't, you can't.
How Microsoft is that? A-holes!
Frankly I'm surprised that the green/red fruits that grow on trees that contain pips are still known as apples! I would of though Steve would of tried suing orchards/god/plannet Earth by now for trademark infringement - they rip off his company's name and they even have the word "app" as the first three letters!
I wonder if Steve will also try to patent gravity seeing as it was discovered with an apple!
Mine's the one with infringing fruits sticking out the pocket!
Example 1:
"I would have gone shopping but I felt ill."
Example 2:
"I would of gone shopping but I felt ill."
Are you seriously trying to tell me that when you look at the second example and try to parse it it makes sense to you? You might as well say something like:
"Her eyes were green, the colour have a winter sea."
Now if you think that sounds stupid think about how you sound when you do the same thing in reverse.
Here's my patent gate: we take journalists who have appended "gate" to the subject of the latest scandal, and slam their fingers in it until they are re-educated. Had this been done with William Safire back in the "Koreagate" days 40+ years ago, we might not be suffering from these names still.
Folks, the Watergate apartments in Washington are bankrupt. The suffix became so long ago. Let it die.