SanSpeak

What ? Microsoft Patents Double Clicks ???

Microsoft gains double-clicking patent and wanna play the GOD. I think patents should have some social clause attached to it. If man is a social animal then patents must have some boundaries and social consideration and its social impact.Double click is simply an extension to the idea of mouse which was invented XEROX Palo Alto Laboratary and first incorporate by Apple. Microsoft may not excercise its patent right very strictly but nobody can stop legally if they want to. Patenting is good for business in one way and thats why it exists but it should have jury based application which would think wholesome and would also consider the effect of the patent and its impact on society . Just imagine if there was a patent on "Wheel"?.

Microsoft has successfully patented using short, long or double clicks to launch different applications on "limited resource computing devices" - presumably PDAs and mobile phones. The US patent was granted on 27 April.

Now any US company using a variety of clicks to launch different software functions from the same button will have to change their product, pay licensing fees to Microsoft or give Microsoft access to its intellectual property in return.

British company Symbian, which makes operating systems for mobile phones that employ double clicks and has offices in the US could be affected, as could PalmOne in California, which supplies PDA software.

Several activists who oppose software patents say that Microsoft's patent is not a "sensible use" of the patenting system because the idea of the long, short and double clicks is neither novel or non-obvious.

Both the US and the UK use these criteria to decide whether or not to grant patents. "It is almost beyond parody that Microsoft has been able to do this," says Ian Brown of the Foundation for Information Policy Research in London, UK.

SanSpeak

Friday, June 4

What ? Microsoft Patents Double Clicks ???

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