On Wed, 25 Feb 2004 07:55:11 -0700
Michael Wilkinson <mike_at_towerravens.com> wrote:
> There is Microsoft Patent for a virtual desktop in the works, have you
> guys seen this:
>
> http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PG01&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=%2220030189597%22.PGNR.&OS=DN/20030189597&RS=DN/20030189597
IANAL, as they say, but here are my initial observations on this patent
application (the full text of the application may be grabbed in PDF form
from
http://www.pat2pdf.com/20030189597.pdf).
1) This is, as yet, only an application, published after a standard 18
month waiting period.
2) The "invention" claimed is a detailed description of Microsoft's
MSVDM (Virtual Desktop Manager) component of their Power Tools
collection for Windows XP. This is readily seen in the supporting
artwork.
3) The application does not put a lock on the entire idea of
virtual desktop cum pager. The supporting drawings acknowledge prior art
in this area (albeit somewhat anonymously). You'll see recognizable KDE
and GNOME panel images (complete with GNOME pager) on page 2 (Figs. 1A -
1C).
4) So far as I can tell, the gist of the claimed invention is their
method for interacting with the pager - zooming to full-screen, etc.
While I consider this entirely too trivial, frivolous, and obvious to be
worthy of a patent, I'm no patent expert (of course, I doubt that many
patent experts are also software experts). They may well be able to get
by with this one, though some of the individual claims may get denied or
modified. This is the aspect that concerns me most, for fear of overly
broad interpretations of the claims in the future, should the patent be
granted.
5) This *may* well be a purely defensive patent application,
to prevent some rapacious, litigation-happy company from charging them
with IP violations for their MSVDM tool. They do have some history of
being targeted by companies whose main product seems to be IP
litigation.
I'll be curious to see what the FSF's take on this is.
Cheers,
Bob
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Received on Thu Feb 26 2004 - 09:41:05 GMT