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qole is offline qole
2009-01-27 , 22:17
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#11
Ok, here's a relevant article by Bill Buxton himself.

Multi-touch technologies have a long history. To put it in perspective, the original work undertaken by my team was done in 1984, the same year that the first Macintosh computer was released, and we were not the first. Furthermore, there was a significant body of prior art on which multi-touch was built.

The following is a very brief and incomplete summary of some of the landmark examples that I have been involved with and/or known about and encountered over the years. It is incomplete and a work in progress (so if you come back a second time, chances are there will be more and better information). I apologize to those that I have missed. I have erred on the side of timeliness vs thoroughness. Other work can be found in the references to the papers that I do include.
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mikkov is offline mikkov
2009-01-27 , 22:19
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#12
Originally Posted by tso View Post
iirc, patents hold for 2 terms of 6 years, if one remember to renew them after the first 6. this means that unless this patent is taken down in court (or the patent office reconsiders), apple will hold this patent for 12 year.
Patents can be typically extented for 20 years period

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Term_of_patent
 

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tso is offline tso
2009-01-27 , 22:21
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#13
Originally Posted by mikkov View Post
Patents can be typically extented for 20 years period

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Term_of_patent
heh, i just failed at patent lawyering
 
lcuk's Avatar
lcuk is offline lcuk
2009-01-27 , 22:39
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#14
multitouch gestures have been around for a LONG time, even longer than touchscreens.

Press Alt with one finger, and press Tab with the other.
The 3 fingered salute is also a multitouch gesture.

And before you say thats different, is the optimus maximus a touchscreen?
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nilchak is offline nilchak
2009-01-28 , 02:41
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#15
Haha, I liked the 3 finger salute as a example of multi-touch. Thanks lcuk for the great line and a hearty laugh.

and along your example of alt.tab combo - there is the more famous example of multi-(key)-touch
ctrl-alt-del
 
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2009-01-28 , 02:45
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#16
that would be the 3 finger salute
 

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SD69 is offline SD69
2009-01-28 , 03:17
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#17
Originally Posted by qole View Post
If that is true, then this patent can be made null by producing the "prior art" that shows someone else thought of it first.

This patent looks pretty specific, however, and I don't think they'll be able to prove that they own the concept of multitouch as a whole, just the iPhone's implementation of it.

Jeff Han drew gasps and applause from the audience when he demonstrated multitouch in Feb. 2006 at TED. Here's a demo of another multitouch device from 2006. In his demo, Han claims that "Bill Buxton" (?) was working on multitouch in the 80s.
Want to know the first multitouch patent?? Look here...

http://www.internettablettalk.com/fo...351#post260351
 
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mullf is offline mullf
2009-01-28 , 03:50
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#18
Originally Posted by tso View Post
iirc, patents hold for 2 terms of 6 years, if one remember to renew them after the first 6. this means that unless this patent is taken down in court (or the patent office reconsiders), apple will hold this patent for 12 year.
20 years from the filing date of the original parent application.
 
macit is offline macit
2009-01-28 , 04:04
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#19
Palm has probably many hundreds of patents for the PDA business. I am not sure that Apple would "jump" on them so quickly. On the other hand, Apple does have a much deeper pocket than Palm...
 
SD69 is offline SD69
2009-01-28 , 04:36
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#20
Originally Posted by ioan View Post
JFax (if I remember right) owns a patent for "fax store and forward". So you can't build ANY kind of application that receive a fax, store it and then forward it (using any electronic method) without having to buy the rights from JFax. Isn't that crazy?
Not true. The problem (a typical one) is that JFax made that allegation and it gets repeated, but its 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.
 

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