Star Editorial: Not Everyone Understands the Patent Situation
Linked by Eugenia Loli-Queru on Sat 15th May 2004 08:23 UTC
Editorial It is when I read articles like this that I have "my blood all going up to my head" (that's a Greek saying for people that get angry). So apparently, Apple is trying to patent "transparent windows that do a certain action after fading away". While I don't personally find this "innovation/invention" patentable, it's fine with me: Apple is doing the best it can to secure its business (maybe I would do the same if I had shareholders on my back).
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by PantherPPC on Sat 15th May 2004 16:06 UTC

Just because there is a patent doesn't mean the patent holder is going to go after everyone who uses it. Tech companies have been patenting this stuff for ages.

Lets say you are a small company, or even an OSS development group. You come up with a great new product or idea or GUI or whatever, anything really. Now of course you want your product to spread. What happens is you get bought up by a larger company that can do three things for you. One, they can spread your product, they have the muscle to do it. Two, they can fight off other companies who own patents on parts of your ideas. And three, they can give you a boatload of money for your work, and usually hire you and your team as full time paid developers. Then, most of the time, the patent for the original part you did isn't given to the company that bought you, but to you as an individual, yet under the blanket protection of the company.

That's how big businesses and startups work together.


Apple getting a patent on this stuff probably isn't so that they can sue Linux developers everywhere, it's probably to f*ck with Microsoft. If you notice, Apple doesn't usually make the same mistakes twice. Can you imagine where Microsoft would be if Apple hadn't given them permission (although unknowingly) to use their GUI concepts? Concepts, which by the way, weren't given to Apple as a company, but rather to the engineers and developers who came up with them that were currently working at Apple (think the GUI team that they hired away from Xerox when Xerox didn't want to turn a GUI into an actual product).