Thread: The end of multitouch for...everyone?
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ragnar is offline ragnar
2009-01-28 , 07:14
Posts: 631 | Thanked: 1,123 times | Joined on Sep 2005 @ Helsinki
#22
Originally Posted by SD69 View Post
Not true. -- A second type of problem is with the type of website posting that started this thread. Someone who doesn't know what she's talking about says "Essentially, Apple wins the war on their multi-touch technology and other copycats should be shaking in their boots" and everyone starts chattering (incorrectly) like no one else can have a multi-touch phone. As mentioned in post #10, the patent is rather specific.
Yes exactly. It's not a patent application about multitouch as such, but rather one very specific application of multitouch.

For a mini primer on how to read patent applications, read the claims. They're really the only thing that ultimately counts. Start with claim 1. If your solution does something differently from any part of the text in the claim, the patent does not apply to you. For the following claims, if they say "... of claim 1", then if claim 1 does not apply to you, then the following claims do not also apply to you.

Reading the summary is then useful (much better than the abstract), since there they generally try to explain what this patent is really about. In this case it talks much about detecting a one-dimensional scrolling movement vs. two-dimensional movement based on the initial movement of the finger. Quickly reading it looks like the use of a two-finger gesture ("the next item heuristic") to go to the next and previous image, like in a photo application.

So for the original thread title: no, it's not a end of multitouch for... anyone.
 

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