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Bend-over PalmOne!

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Anonymous   06-06-2004 at 12:34:40 AM

Archived from groups: comp.sys.palmtops.pilot (More info?)

 

Microsoft has just been awarded a patent on programmable hardware
buttons on handheld computers.
<http://www.palminfocenter.com/view_story.asp?ID=6873>
It will probably cover the DIA silkscreen buttons also.
If you were MS and PalmOne asked for a license, would you charge your
competition a fair price or an arm and a leg?

--
Hope this helps.
Jim Anderson
( 8(|) To email me just pull my_finger

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Anonymous   06-06-2004 at 12:34:41 AM
- 0 +

Archived from groups: comp.sys.palmtops.pilot (More info?)

 

Jim Anderson rose and spake the following:

> Microsoft has just been awarded a patent on programmable hardware
> buttons on handheld computers.
> <http://www.palminfocenter.com/view_story.asp?ID=6873>
> It will probably cover the DIA silkscreen buttons also.
> If you were MS and PalmOne asked for a license, would you charge your
> competition a fair price or an arm and a leg?

Oh great. Another opportunity for PalmOne to waste time challenging a
patent that probably should never have been granted in the first place.

--
Derek

Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.
But it rocks absolutely, too.

Reply to Anonymous
Anonymous   06-06-2004 at 06:46:31 PM
- 0 +

Archived from groups: comp.sys.palmtops.pilot (More info?)

 

On 6-Jun-2004, Derek <news@gwinn.us> wrote:

> Jim Anderson rose and spake the following:
>
> > Microsoft has just been awarded a patent on programmable hardware
> > buttons on handheld computers.
> > <http://www.palminfocenter.com/view_story.asp?ID=6873>
> > It will probably cover the DIA silkscreen buttons also.
> > If you were MS and PalmOne asked for a license, would you charge your
> > competition a fair price or an arm and a leg?
>
> Oh great. Another opportunity for PalmOne to waste time challenging a
> patent that probably should never have been granted in the first place.

I'm pretty sure there will be a class action on this one and they will have
to contend with IBM, ever held down a key on your keyboard?

--
Cuba

Reply to Anonymous
Anonymous   06-06-2004 at 06:46:32 PM
- 0 +

Archived from groups: comp.sys.palmtops.pilot (More info?)

 

Cuba rose and spake the following:

> On 6-Jun-2004, Derek <news@gwinn.us> wrote:
>
>> Jim Anderson rose and spake the following:
>>
>>> Microsoft has just been awarded a patent on programmable hardware
>>> buttons on handheld computers.
>>> <http://www.palminfocenter.com/view_story.asp?ID=6873>
>>> It will probably cover the DIA silkscreen buttons also.
>>> If you were MS and PalmOne asked for a license, would you charge your
>>> competition a fair price or an arm and a leg?
>>
>> Oh great. Another opportunity for PalmOne to waste time challenging a
>> patent that probably should never have been granted in the first place.
>
> I'm pretty sure there will be a class action on this one and they will have
> to contend with IBM, ever held down a key on your keyboard?

Skip the class action. The patent is still open for comment. The Patent
Office no longer goes looking for prior art. But if someone can point it
out to them...

--
Derek

We're all given a ticket to the American freak show the day we're born and
some people, they put their ticket away. Me, I watch the show. - George
Carlin

Reply to Anonymous
Anonymous   06-06-2004 at 11:47:15 PM
- 0 +

Archived from groups: comp.sys.palmtops.pilot (More info?)

 

Derek <news@gwinn.us> wrote:
> Skip the class action. The patent is still open for comment. The
> Patent Office no longer goes looking for prior art. But if someone
> can point it out to them...

I am damn sure that Palm had
"hold-down-the-address-book-button-to-beam-your-card" functionality long
before 1999, when Microsoft filed for their patent.

What's next? Patenting "flip open" and stylus wells?

Does the man not see that the patent system is doing the *opposite* of what
it was meant to -- it doesn't protect the inventor, who (if he even exists)
is a salaried employee who gets the same pay no matter what, but *stifles*
inventions, by making people stop inventing at all out of fear of being
slapped by a lawsuit?

--
*Art

Reply to Anonymous
Dugie   06-07-2004 at 05:53:56 AM
- 0 +

Archived from groups: comp.sys.palmtops.pilot (More info?)

 

"Jim Anderson" <fro2750@frontiernet.my_finger.net> wrote in message
news:MPG.1b2bce2757471138989742@news.frontiernet.net...
> Microsoft has just been awarded a patent on programmable hardware
> buttons on handheld computers.
> <http://www.palminfocenter.com/view_story.asp?ID=6873>
> It will probably cover the DIA silkscreen buttons also.
> If you were MS and PalmOne asked for a license, would you charge your
> competition a fair price or an arm and a leg?

To answer your question, assuming it's not facetious:

I'd charge as much as possible, which equates to your charge of "an arm and a leg." :-)

- Dugie

Reply to Dugie
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