Apple patents dock

Stardock responds: Bring it on

from WinCustomize Forums

Apple has been granted a patent for the MacOS dock.

Read the whole thing here.

Besides the general idea of a userbar with "a plurality of item representations" that consolidates features like "launching and managing running applications," the patent focuses particularly on the Dock's magnification feature that makes icons bigger as you sweep by them with a cursor.

Some may recall this article that points out that not only have docks been seen in operating systems for decades but that Stardock has been doing docks since 1994.

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Look familiar?  Apple has every right to protect their inventions. But their innovation with regards to the Mac dock is extremely narrow.  Stardock doesn't patent its software as a rule for philosophical reasons. But the lack of a patent doesn't mean Stardock hasn't been heavily involved in creating prior art.

 

16,902 views 28 replies
Reply #1 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Just what does this mean for Stardock?

Do you expect Apple to show up at the door with a court order? :S

EDIT:  I guess I needed to read the link first, sorry.

Reply #2 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Since SD has been doing docks since before the patent was applied for, Wouldnt OD fall under prior programs and fall out side the patents restrictions? Will Apple be stupid enough to try and force OD off the market?

Jobs did not invent the "dock" but yet they list him as one of the inventors?

Didnt OD zoom the Icons back in 94? I thought they did...

 

To expand on an idea already out there is one thing.. but to take said idea and patent it, basically stealing the idea and claiming it as your own, then have the patent office legitamize it is preposterous. But yet MS is constantly being blasted for thier "Shady practices"???? and being drug in to court?

Multiplicity - Control multiple PCs using one keyboard and mouse
Reply #3 from WinCustomize Forums Top
That just blows me away. I have a feeling this is going to get ugly. I refuse to give up my docks....its what helps keep my desktop clean!
Reply #5 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Well, nothing like looking past the obivous, different platforms, different languages, right?

Object Dock being for the PC shouldn't be affect by this, right?

Apple surely didn't get a patent for docks or even the zooming effect on all computer platforms, did they?

EDIT:  I've read some more stuff about this and it does look like Apple's patent applies to other computer platforms.

Reply #6 from WinCustomize Forums Top
oh boy do i dislike apple more and more for each passing day. They remind me of what microsoft was like in the nineties.i bet you stardock will get a letter though their door asking for some monies for every od plus thats being sold. i was fuming when i saw this on gizmodo :(
Reply #7 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I am getting fed up by the mockery of the US patent system and it's international implications (UK here),
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Me too (US here). "Mockery" seems to be such a appropriate word.
Reply #8 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Everybody grab OD+ and run, or that guy in the turtleneck will come and get you 

Meh. Apple sucks. Big time :thumbsdown:  

Reply #9 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Don't these people at the patent office do any sort of research? iIdiots strike again.
Reply #10 from WinCustomize Forums Top

To permit a greater number of items to reside in the userbar, a magnification function can be provided which magnifies items within the userbar when they are proximate the cursor associated with the graphical user interface.

Ah, yes, there we go. The patent is for rollover magnification of the items in the dock.

 

Quite narrow, really....;)

Reply #11 from WinCustomize Forums Top

This is crazy, almost as crazy as McDonalds Inc tried to close down family run take-away in Scotland called McDonalds Burgers a few years ago.

Judge told McDonalds where to go though on the grounds of the family name was McDonald and they were more entitled to use of the name than a Kroc even if a surname could be patented and besides Scottish history much older and full of more precedent than US Corparate law and even US history.

Scottish law is rather more intelligent than most as 3 possible verdicts - innocent, not proven or guilty so if found not proven there is possibility of revisit the trial based on new evidence.

Apple are crazy and greedy in the beginning agents to sell their products then they introduced Apple stores in direct competition to people who paid for permits to sell Apple products, talk about getting screwed by your boss.

Reply #12 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Apple won't get my dock! Or my rollovers! :p
Reply #13 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Jobs did not invent the "dock" but yet they list him as one of the inventors?
End of quote
He is an incredibly narcissistic person. His micromanagement and personality are legendary.
Reply #14 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I think this shows the legal value of using the system. Stardock should learn to file for patents on the technology it develops. You can't be awarded a patent if you do not file for one.
Reply #15 from WinCustomize Forums Top

The Amiga had docks as well, so I believe prior art will invalidate this in a court of law if it comes up.

Reply #16 from WinCustomize Forums Top
You have to give it their legal team. Not that this is a shining example of the patent office. The patent system needs an overhaul and too get with the times...at least maybe they could catch up to last century? Enforcing a patent is significantly harder than getting it. Great for lawyers bad for everyone else. Part of me just sees this as another feather they will throw into their marketing cap. We invented, we invented that, we created clean air, blah blah blah.
Reply #17 from WinCustomize Forums Top

I'm not sure I buy into the idea that the concept of a dock can be patented.  I'm not immediately familiar with the requirements for patent but, I think something has to demonstrate a unique, new and original function to be patentable.  You can design and build a new and better mouse trap and possibly get a patent for it, but only for the unique, new and original aspect of it.  The concept of a mouse trap itself isn't patentable.

Even as to the enlargement aspect on mouseover portion of the Apple OSX Dock that may not be unique, new and original.  It should be interesting to see this play out.

Reply #18 from WinCustomize Forums Top
another case of apple claiming something as it's own with no regard for others, no wonder i despise the company, just let them try and take away my docks :)
Reply #19 from WinCustomize Forums Top
They didn't patent the dock. The feature they patented is the magnification feature.
To permit a greater number of items to reside in the userbar, a magnification function can be provided which magnifies items within the userbar when they are proximate the cursor associated with the graphical user interface.
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Reply #20 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Pixeleo said:
Everybody grab OD+ and run, or that guy in the turtleneck will come and get you
End of quote
I'm not scared of Jobs. I clicked on your link and he looks pale and skinny. I think I could take him. Ausvet said:
This is crazy, almost as crazy as McDonalds Inc tried to close down family run take-away in Scotland called McDonalds Burgers a few years ago.

Judge told McDonalds where to go though on the grounds of the family name was McDonald and they were more entitled to use of the name than a Kroc even if a surname could be patented and besides Scottish history much older and full of more precedent than US Corparate law and even US history.
End of quote
That's a pretty funny story. Jafo said:
To permit a greater number of items to reside in the userbar, a magnification function can be provided which magnifies items within the userbar when they are proximate the cursor associated with the graphical user interface.

Ah, yes, there we go. The patent is for rollover magnification of the items in the dock.



Quite narrow, really....
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Yes, but hasn't OD been doing that for a while too? Is OD 2.0 not going to include this feature?
Reply #21 from WinCustomize Forums Top

I understand that Stardock is against software patents...but at the same time, I'd think defensive patents (ones that you register simply to prevent others from claiming it as their own then suing you over it) would be good. No active prosecution of 'infringers,' just evidence in your defense.

Reply #22 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Good point Taepodong. There seems to be a whole new industry of simply patenting concepts/ideas. This seems to have been cultivated mostly by lawyers. The issue still remains the same for the little guys such as inventors and small business.

Reply #23 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I agree. It would be the prudent thing to do just like doing a will or getting the proper life insurance for your family is prudent. It's just insurance for your company and worth the expense of getting it. And since the concept of a patent itself is in the US Constitution, something venerable enough not to be dismissed automatically as bad or unsavory.
Reply #24 from WinCustomize Forums Top
The only way Apple and Jobs will get my ObjectDock+. is peel it from my cold dead computer!  :) 
Reply #25 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Sometimes there will be 'products' that are just so commonplace or woven into a culture that no-one ever believes they warrant patent protection, etc.  as it's a 'given' that everyone knows who belongs to them...or who they belong to.

Perfect example was/is Ugg Boots.  Some Johnny-come-lately distributor of them in the US decided to file for the trademark...and got it.....even though it was a product 'name' that had freely existed in Australia for half a century.

At the end of the day it mattered diddly-squat as Australian Law laughed out the claim...so we [Oz] can still call an Ugg Boot an Ugg Boot...without paying triple the price for a third-rate copy imported from the US....;)