No Joke: Microsoft Patents Page Up & Down Keys!

[TheFamilyMan]

Taken from tomshardware:

Microsoft Patents Page Up & Down Keys

3:10 PM - September 2, 2008 by Aaron Heibert

Microsoft recently applied for and received Patent #7,415,666. Microsoft has just patented two keys that are on every keyboard that is manufactured on this planet – Page Up & Page Down. Seriously. This patent was originally filed in March 4, 2005 and was awarded August 19, 2008.

This clearly shows how broken and dysfunctional the patent system really is. Maybe someone should quickly run and apply for a patent on Backspace – It is without doubt one of the most widely used keys on any keyboard! Or maybe Ford should patent the steering wheel or gas pedal? Maybe I could patent the process of typing a Blog!

Here is a excerpt from the actual patent Microsoft was recently awarded :

Method and system for navigating paginated content in page-based increments

A method and system in a document viewer for scrolling a substantially exact increment in a document, such as one page, regardless of whether the zoom is such that some, all or one page is currently being viewed. In one implementation, pressing a Page Down or Page Up keyboard key/button allows a user to begin at any starting vertical location within a page, and navigate to that same location on the next or previous page. For example, if a user is viewing a page starting in a viewing area from the middle of that page and ending at the bottom, a Page Down command will cause the next page to be shown in the viewing area starting at the middle of the next page and ending at the bottom of the next page. Similar behavior occurs when there is more than one column of pages being displayed in a row.

Maybe it is because the patent offices are over worked, or maybe the internal processes they utilizes just need some serious revamping. None the less, the situation is broken and needs to be addressed.

How about Patent #5,443,036 - a method for exercising a cat with a laser pointer. Or Patent #6,960,975 - a space vehicle propelled by the pressure of inflationary vacuum state, which clearly defies the currently known laws of physics.

[Gramps]

IIRC, Microsoft also holds the patent on the "Double-Click" phrase.

[edDV]

This is defense as much as offense. If they didn't someone else would do it then come after deep pocket M$FT for royalty.

[Gramps]

Someone should get a patent on the terms "Service Pack" and "Hotfix". Microsoft could pay us. Every time they tell someone to re-install a Service Pack or to wait for the next Hotfix....Cha-Ching!!

Unless Microsoft stops releasing Service Packs and Hotfixes........ Nah! That will never happen.

[TheFamilyMan]

Yeah, this article title is misleading…the patent is for specific document scrolling operations which still, IMO, is like a mathematician copyrighting a solution to a differential equation. Too bad Donald Knuth didn’t copyright all his search/sort/etc. algorithms back in the 60’s. He’d be richer than Bill Gates (or have stalled the efficient use of computing in business and science for possibly years).

[JohnnyMalaria]

Another thing that has happened to the patent world is that the requirement to reduce the invention to practice has gone. You can patent the idea without ever proving that it is possible.

I'm the inventor on a number of patents and the language has to be crafted in a very careful yet stupid matter. Basically, you have to demonstrate the idea is non-obvious. This leads to statements like:

"Surprisingly, we have discovered that adding ingredient X to a tablet makes in dissolve faster" rather than "by applying our intellect, we worked out how to make a tablet dissolve faster". i.e., you have to feign stupidity and act as if you just stumbled across it. That's bass ackwards.

[jagabo]

Backspace is the most used letter of the alphabet.

[JohnnyMalaria]

I'm going to patent software that knows what key you meant to press.

Damn. It's in the public domain now. Goodbye lolly.

[zoobie]

this has been a disturbing trend for several years now
surprised the whole patent office hasn't been overhauled

[JohnnyMalaria]

Let's band together a get a patent for a new patent system.