16 ms·
Stupid Patent of the Month: Microsoft’s Design Patent on a Slider
- ZoeZoeBee 11y agoCan't say I'll miss the lawyers about to be put out by AI
- BinaryIdiot 11y agoArguably if lawyers are to be replaced by AI wouldn't the AI work quicker, file more lawsuits and seek faster judgements? Seems like AI making a literal interpretation of many things would make this problem far worse :)
- bitmapbrother 11y agoI'm anxious to see what angle the Microsoft supporters use to justify this truly stupid patent. They proclaimed Microsoft had changed LOL - Microsoft is still the same old Microsoft. They're still using old prior art ridden patents to shake down companies and either make them sign ridiculous patent licensing terms or take them to court in a battle of attrition.
- paulddraper 11y agoMore than one person works at Microsoft. Kinda like how more then one person comments on HN.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- andyl 11y agoDoes anyone know how much money Microsoft stands to collect from companies that infringe on this slider patent?
- lolc 11y agoTo think that some body must have written this monstrosity of a patent.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- enjo 11y ago" For example, Samsung explains that under the Federal Circuit’s ruling, “profits on an entire car—or even an eighteen-wheel tractor trailer—must be awarded based on an undetachable infringing cup-holder.” " At some point companies are just going to stop doing business in the United States. I get that it's the worlds largest economy, but little by little this nonsense will fix that.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- georgemcbay 11y agoThis is not really meant to be a defense of the United States since the origin of this 1990s+ era patent nonsense is clearly our fault (speaking as an American), but I think it is somewhat naive to assume other countries will be spared or will be useful as safe havens. I mean, just look at the various trade agreements and their related IP provisions that are currently being debated or have already been passed. The ultimate driver of this lunacy isn't the US government, but rather multinational corporations (who are increasingly not even technically US companies since they keep tax inverting into other countries) and they are pushing hard for this crap everywhere and mostly winning still.
- TeMPOraL 11y agoYup. A lot of those new provisions aren't in the interest of citizens, or even governments - politicians have no incentive to push for them except various types of legal and illegal bribes they get from corporations.
- headShrinker 11y agoTheir point stands, they have been fought for pity cases before. That said, Samsung is hardly a company's quote worth exemplifying.
- otterley 11y ago> At some point companies are just going to stop doing business in the United States The companies being sued tend to be "copycat companies" who take someone else's essential design and sell a shoddy replica of it, maybe with a few superfluous features added on. I won't shed a tear if they get out of town.
- ahmedfromtunis 11y agoWhat happens if I put the (+) and (-) in squares ([+] and [-])?
- josaka 11y agoPossibly no infringement. Design patents are easy to design around. Just change the design. The real threat is when the plaintiff can get back damages for pre-suit infringement. You can't do anything about your previous use of the design, and the exposure for infringement is much higher that utility patents: loss of profits, rather than just a reasonable royalty. Whether you can get pre-suit damages depends, usually, on whether you gave some kind of notice, e.g., a letter to the defendant or marked your product "protected by patent XYZ."
- javajosh 11y agoI get how we all intuitively want the PTO to not issue "stupid patents" but is there an objective, mechanical way to determine what is stupid? Do we care more about false positives (as in this case) or false negatives (a hypothetical alternative universe where too few, rather than too many, patents are awarded). Now, before you start arguing against patents entirely, what I really want to know is: without patents, how are individual supposed to profit from their inventiveness when a larger entity could trivially copy the idea and profit based on their superior connections and capitalization? And yes, I'm talking about software. Are software inventors just supposed to give away their inventions as open source and feed themselves by working for someone else who a) got the ask, and b) defended their IP?
- FredFredrickson 11y agoAs an artist, this is exactly the point that I make when I argue with people who say patents should be abolished. Without any kind of protection, anyone who has a greater means of production/marketing than you will always steal your ideas and profit more from them than you can. Obviously we need to fix the process so that as few bad patents are awarded as possible. Someone's just got to figure out how!
- BinaryIdiot 11y ago> Without any kind of protection, anyone who has a greater means of production/marketing than you will always steal your ideas and profit more from them than you can. Since you're an artist shouldn't you only care about copyright and trademarks? What's a patent going to do for you? If someone steals your designs then you can sue them through means other than patents. If they copied your idea but executed differently then well I guess that sucks to a degree but if it's an obvious evolution then more than likely it happened independent of you anyway. I would imagine artists would have the least issue with just abolishing patents entirely so I'm curious why you do.
- 2muchcoffeeman 11y agoI know Harry Connick Jr. holds at least one patent to do with performing his music. Imogen Heap has also been working with some guys to develop their Mimu Gloves. Which probably have some proprietry software & engineering. So there are at least a couple of people wanting to protect ideas.
- FussyZeus 11y agoHonestly as stupid as this (and many others) are, it's the fault of the patent system, not the companies. The companies are reacting rationally to the system as it's been created, i.e. patent everything possible so you have more patents covering more things than your competitors. The only reason patent troll companies exist is because some smart investors realized you didn't need to do the risky bit, make products, to hold and enforce patents. The system needs to be fixed, and then shit like this will go away naturally.
- wstrange 11y agoTrue -the system does need reform. But certain companies behave much more badly than others. We should call them out on it.
- habitue 11y agoThis is the Microsoft we know. Welcome back!
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- overgard 11y agoIt's a shame, they were so close to seeming not-evil! It's funny, I think Windows 10 kind of got a free pass on some pretty big bullshit (forced updates, extremely bad privacy policies) because people were like "ah, microsoft is harmless now". Those are things that would have been HUGE ten years ago. Like, windows 10 basically defaults you into keylogging. It's not exactly keylogging, but they basically propose uploading your inputs so it's pretty similar. I'm not a hater, but this "new" and "friendly" Microsoft tends to be newer and friendlier when people hold them accountable; they shouldn't be getting a free pass on some of this nonsense they're trying to pull.
- tracker1 11y agoIt's not key-logging, there's a couple of text input areas that have added in search functionality... Ubuntu and Apple added these features a while ago, and it's a pretty big feature in Android (at least with google's toolbar, and ok google). That said, I disabled it in both areas as I found it incredibly annoying... As for forced updates and some of the other privacy issues, I do give them a bit of a pass on that because I'd rather not have to deal with 3+ year old browsers ever again... once IE9-11 die, I'm hoping that's it... the same goes for the devs at MS, and elsewhere.
- overgard 11y agoI'm not talking about that. Ahem, from the terms and services: > When you acquire, install and use the Program software and services, Microsoft collects information about your use of the software and services as well as about the devices and networks on which they operate. Examples of data we may collect include your name, email address, preferences and interests; location, browsing, search and file history; phone call and SMS data; device configuration and sensor data; voice, text and writing input; and application usage. For example, when you: > when you input text, handwrite notes, or ink comments, we may collect samples of your input to improve these input features, (e.g., to help improve the accuracy of autocomplete and spellcheck). Are you ok with your handwritten notes and input text living on Microsoft's servers so they can improve their spellcheck?
- lostinpoetics 11y agoa silly patent (even by design patent stds), but the complaint illustrates that this patent is a pretty small part of a [smallish] thicket of patents on the ribbon concept, as well corel pretty brazenly trying to capitalize on the Office UI (whether that is a legit claim or not is up for debate) back when MS was pushing it (and of course MS allegedly meeting with Corel to "resolve" it after finding out). personal opinion is that it may have been a compelling claim in 2007/2008, but now just gives you that slimy feeling again. another good fact (probably irrelevant) is that microsoft is now (and has been) encouraging people to use the ribbon metaphor (as far as i can tell).
- ams6110 11y agoPutting aside whether Microsoft’s design was actually new and not obvious in 2006 (when Microsoft filed its application) UI sliders were certainly not novel in 2006. And I'd be surprised if Corel did anything other than use the stock slider in Microsoft's UI library. Maybe they implemented their own and it looks too much like Microsoft's?
- sergers 11y agofrom the actual lawsuit, it is more about corel creating a "Microsoft word mode" to mimic the UI/style of MS Word. this slider is just part of it. http://blogs.msdn.com/b/jensenh/archive/2006/11/21/licensing-the-2007-microsoft-office-user-interface.aspx http://blogs.msdn.com/b/jensenh/archive/2006/11/21/licensing... edit: fixed link, thank commenter below for identifying error
- cfqycwz 11y agoYour link appears to be missing a hyphen--the post is available at http://blogs.msdn.com/b/jensenh/archive/2006/11/21/licensing-the-2007-microsoft-office-user-interface.aspx http://blogs.msdn.com/b/jensenh/archive/2006/11/21/licensing...
- nivla 11y agoKeeping aside the stupidity of the patent, it does seems like Coral made their Wordperfect look a lot similar to Microsoft Word.[1][2] [1] http://www.wordperfect.com/static/img/content/products/wp_ho/lp/ui.jpg http://www.wordperfect.com/static/img/content/products/wp_ho... [2] http://www.wordperfect.com/us/product/corel-office-software/ http://www.wordperfect.com/us/product/corel-office-software/
- tstrimple 11y agoThe Corel tools literally have a "Microsoft <product> mode" which changes the UI to look almost identical to the equivalent Microsoft product. They aren't hiding the fact that the design is taken from Microsoft. Take a look at the screenshots from the complaint and if you hide the name title bar, you'll have a hard time picking out which one is from Microsoft and which is from Corel. https://www.eff.org/files/2015/12/28/microsoft_v_corel_-_complaint.pdf https://www.eff.org/files/2015/12/28/microsoft_v_corel_-_com...
- DGAP 11y agoWhy didn't we get "Stupid Patent of the Month" HN posts when Apple patented "electronic devices with rounded corners?"
- emptybits 11y agoA quick search reveals two submissions here when Apple was granted that patent, three years ago. Zero comments. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4755374 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4755374 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4755558 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4755558
- devsquid 11y agoThis one is pretty good too tho.
- Alterlife 11y agoI'm sure we will will have a flood of well upvoted posts if apple tries to enforce that patent.
- fatratchet 11y agoDidn't that already happen with the samsung lawsuit?
- outside1234 11y agoYou mean like with Samsung?
- toufka 11y agoBecause the EFF's 'stupid patent of the month' section was started pretty much in direct response to Apple using it's rounded-corner patent in its litigation with Samsung.
- felipeerias 11y agoIMHO, the issue is that Corel's and Samsung's products were clearly and intentionally designed to imitate other successful products in order to mislead consumers. There are different opinions on whether this should be acceptable or not (obviously, the corporation that just had their flagship product ripped off thinks it completely unacceptable). Trade dress and seemingly stupid patents are just ways for corporations to fight this in court.
- EGreg 11y agoI thought that was always a possibility - the punitive damages could even MORE than eat up any profits. Sort of a "crime doesn't pay" attitude. Isn't that so for utility patents? Otherwise people would "go ahead and execute" their idea, and sell a lot before getting sued, then simply pay a "fair and reasonable price" for a patent license. Which is it?
- tracker1 11y agoDoesn't QT's QSlider predate this patent by a few years?
- ikeboy 11y ago>Putting aside whether Microsoft’s design was actually new and not obvious in 2006 (when Microsoft filed its application), whether Microsoft needed the patent incentive in order to come up with this design Abrupt shift from legal argument to meta-legal argument. Seems stylistically wrong.
- josaka 11y agoThis suit is probably in retaliation for an earlier Corel suit against Microsoft this summer. http://www.fosspatents.com/2015/07/corel-software-sues-microsoft-for.html http://www.fosspatents.com/2015/07/corel-software-sues-micro.... This one reason companies keep a war-chest of patents, so they can fight back when targeted with a dying company's portfolio.
- cperciva 11y agoThis seems like an entirely reasonable design patent to me. There are lots of ways of drawing such a slider; the patent does not cover any function, merely the ornamental design. Now, the idea that this should entitle Microsoft to all of Corel's profits for the entire product is clearly absurd; as the article points out, that's the current legal precedent but is being appealed. Lawyers are hardly going to not take advantage of precedents which favour them; nor would it even be good if they did -- the fastest way to overturn bad law is to apply it strictly and make obvious its failings.
- CamperBob2 11y agoIt would be reasonable if someone, somewhere, could explain how we, as a society, benefit from granting government-enforced monopolies on things like this.
- jchavannes 11y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economics_and_patents https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economics_and_patents
- iamcreasy 11y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behavioral_economics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behavioral_economics
- cperciva 11y agoThe original argument essentially mirrored that of copyright (indeed, design patents were originally called design copyrights): To reserve ornamental designs to their creators, since nobody would spend time on such designs if they could be legally copied. Design patents came to exist with the advent of mass-produced goods which were both functional and ornamental. Copyright covered objects which one merely looked at (books, paintings, etc.) while design patents covered objects which were used for a purpose (flour mills, stoves, etc.); neither of these applied to a work of art engraved into the side of a cast-iron stove.
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- shmerl 11y agoIt's indeed a stupid patent. Such thing shouldn't be patentable because it's trivial.
- sbuk 11y agoThis is a Design patent not a Utility patent.
- shmerl 11y agoAnd why should trivial design be patentable? It shouldn't be. Patentablity of stuff like rounded corners is beyond ridiculous.
- sbuk 11y agoNo, deliberately misunderstanding and misrepresenting design patents is ridiculous. Arguing that Pepsi should be allowed to imitate the design of a Coke bottle is ridiculous. Rather than taking a zero-sum approach, nuance is needed.
- wstrange 11y agoWhy is that ridiculous? If the Coke bottle has a superior shape, why not use that design? That is quite different than trademark. Consumers should be able to clearly understand if their beverage is a genuine Coke or a Pepsi. In this particular case, I don't think any consumers bought Corel Office thinking it was in fact Microsoft office.
- yuhong 11y agoThe patents involved in the suit mostly looks like MS's patents on parts of Office 2007 UI that was filed in 2006 or so, including parts of the Ribbon.
- gruez 11y agoThe complaint is from 2015. Who the hell uses Corel Office?
- iamcreasy 11y agoThe purpose of A Patent is to allow the inventor to openly share their idea without the fear of stealing. The inventors are also allowed/encouraged to financially profit from their idea so they can continue invention. But these type of patents are hurting everybody except one person. Shame.
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- kyberias 11y agoThis is not a good article. The relevant context is missing: Corel has implemented a "Word mode" in it's product that mimics the look and feel of Microsoft Word. Mimics too well, Microsoft thinks.
- frik 11y agoMicrosoft WinWord is basically feature complete since 1989/90. And it wasn't an original design at all. Xerox and various other companies had word processors several years before Microsoft. Microsoft managed to have an competitive advantage by owning the Windows 3 and DOS platforms - changing platform APIs to make competing word processors and spreadsheet programs incompatible wasn't a fine thing. Microsoft has certainly a bad track record how they act with competitors. Is this the "new Microsoft" everyone tries to tell me they see in their new CEO? It seems it's the same old company with the same old well known tactics.
- kyberias 11y agoDisregarding your other comments, which I think are irrelevant to the topic, I'm interested in this: > changing platform APIs to make competing word processors and spreadsheet programs incompatible wasn't a fine thing You claim that the only reason Word succeeded in competing with e.g. WordPerfect, was by "changing platform APIs". Could you be more specific? What OS, application and exactly what APIs?
- frik 11y ago"If Corel is found to infringe even one of Microsoft’s design patents through even the smallest part of Corel Home Office, current Federal Circuit law entitles Microsoft to all of Corel’s profits for the entire product. Not the profits that can be attributed to the design. Not the value that the design adds to a product. All of the profit from Corel Home Office." With such a crap "design patent" on a generic slider, Microsoft tries to extinguish another Office competitor?
- sergers 11y agoby itself, yes this is a stupid patent. however this is not a stupid lawsuit by MS. this article sucks to highlight the lawsuit. most people are not reading past this is a stupid patent and they are suing corel for such a petty reason. from the actual complaint, microsoft patented the office 2007 UI and specific workflows over multiple patents including this simple stupid one. the others are fairly specific "Microsoft brings this action to protect its rights and investment in its innovations embodied in utility U.S. Patent Nos. 8,255,828 (“the ’828 patent”), 7,703,036 (“the ’036 patent”), 7,047,501 (“the ’501 patent”), 5,715,415 (“the ’415 patent”), 5,510,980 (“the ’980 patent”) and design U.S. Patent Nos. D550,237 (“the D’237 patent”), D554,140 (“the D’140 patent”), D564,532 (“the D’532 patent”), and D570,865 (“the D’865 patent,” collectively “the Microsoft Asserted Patents”), copied by Corel into its infringing products." "Corel has copied the look and feel of the Microsoft interfaces in its accused products. Among many examples, Help for WordPerfect X7 suggests that the user “simulate the Microsoft Word workspace until you are accustomed to work in WordPerfect”: " that is just the opener in the complaint, corel is using these same UIs in a "word mode" essentially cloning the patented "look and feel", which is against micrososft's licensing and use of these elements. https://www.eff.org/files/2015/12/28/microsoft_v_corel_-_complaint.pdf https://www.eff.org/files/2015/12/28/microsoft_v_corel_-_com... the patent doesnt seem so stupid when you put it all together with the other patents and can see what Microsoft was trying to protect overall.
- frik 11y agoHow can you protect an UI, that was heavily inspired by A) Xerox Star B) Apple Lisa C) beside other lesser known third parties and is very common for 30+ years. Adobe Photoshop, Macromedia/Adobe Dreamweaver, KDE shell, Gnome Shell, Wine, Apple MacOS/OSX, BeOS, etc. Many products from other companies had very similar UI designs years earlier than Microsoft or come up at the same time. There was a famous dispute between Apple and Microsoft about the Windows UI that has been settled outside of the court (and the second case was interesting too): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Computer,_Inc._v._Microsoft_Corp https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Computer,_Inc._v._Micros....
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- ommunist 11y agoEhm... this design resembles the design of rheostat slider like that http://olx.ua/i2/obyavlenie/reostat-provolochnyy-maksimalnoe-soprotivlenie-3-kom-IDa8DQr.html http://olx.ua/i2/obyavlenie/reostat-provolochnyy-maksimalnoe... and is not original.
- threesixandnine 11y agoThumbs up for this!
- tim333 11y agoI had though the suit was stupid but I had a look at the Corel Office pics on Amazon and they do look kind of like a near identical copy: Corel Calculate for instance Corel Calculate https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/G/01/software/detail-page/CorelCalc_LG.jpg https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/G/01/software... ( from http://www.amazon.com/Corel-Office-5-3-Installs/dp/B006N1Q0W2 http://www.amazon.com/Corel-Office-5-3-Installs/dp/B006N1Q0W... ) vs Excel https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/91/Microsoft_Office_Excel_2007.png https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/91/Microsoft_Off...
- trymas 11y agoWhen I still was using Windows few years ago (and was not very active developer), I though MS finally made app developers to use Windows native UI/UX design. I mean that, I thought tabular design of complex apps was pushed to third party app developers from MS. IMHO tabular GUI is rather good, so I was happy user, where many big apps were rather similar and easy to use. Before MS Office 2007, every app had very cluttered UI and after many apps had similar design. I cannot remember many, but I know AutoCAD [1] started using design as in MS Word, also MathCAD [2]. TIL it wasn't new Microsofts design language and many apps were/are living on the knifes edge and can be sued if they will get too close to MS's GUI design. [1] http://www.softpedia.com/screenshots/AutoCAD_1.png http://www.softpedia.com/screenshots/AutoCAD_1.png [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathcad#/media/File:Top_right_Prime_screengrab.png https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathcad#/media/File:Top_right_...
- iamtew 11y agoThe UI/UX could also be licensed, so you were allowed to use it. I can't remember what they called it, but I do remember a few years ago my job at the time we had a big .NET application that was using the same design, and we had a license to use it all.
- yuhong 11y agoYea, and that license had restrictions, as mentioned in the complaint.
- throwawaykf05 11y agoAs josaka points out, this may be in retaliation to Corel's patent lawsuit: http://www.law360.com/articles/684098/microsoft-word-copy-pastes-wordperfect-s-ip-corel-says http://www.law360.com/articles/684098/microsoft-word-copy-pa... All the patents in this lawsuit, of which the EFF picked just the one in TFA: 8,255,828 - https://patents.google.com/patent/US8255828 https://patents.google.com/patent/US8255828 7,703,036 - https://patents.google.com/patent/US7703036 https://patents.google.com/patent/US7703036 7,047,501 - https://patents.google.com/patent/US7047501 https://patents.google.com/patent/US7047501 5,715,415 - https://patents.google.com/patent/US5715415 https://patents.google.com/patent/US5715415 5,510,980 - https://patents.google.com/patent/US5510980 https://patents.google.com/patent/US5510980 D550,237 - https://patents.google.com/patent/USD550237 https://patents.google.com/patent/USD550237 D554,140 - https://patents.google.com/patent/USD554140 https://patents.google.com/patent/USD554140 D564,532 - https://patents.google.com/patent/USD564532 https://patents.google.com/patent/USD564532 D570,865 - https://patents.google.com/patent/USD570865 https://patents.google.com/patent/USD570865 The ones beginning with "D" are the design patents. The rest are utility patents.
- bazzargh 11y agoI'm surprised the '415 patent stands. That's the one for an in-window help pane. `C-h m` (describe-mode) in emacs looks very similar to what they describe and was certainly there in 1995 and earlier. I know there's lots of caveats reading patents, but it appears that the independent claims are 1, 11 and 28 and they all look like at least XEmacs would have beat them to the punch.
- throwawaykf05 11y agoI'd agree the '415 is not a good patent for other reasons too. It claims the result rather than the method in very broad terms.
- kyriakos 11y agoIf Microsoft was to buy Corel would it be anti competitive behaviour? Microsoft stands to gain more than just getting corel's office package out of the market, they will gain ownership to Coreldraw and paint which are one of the few Adobe competitors.
- ayi 11y agoI don't think nitpicking, saying "this is just a slider, you can't patent it" or "ms copied all concepts from xerox and apple lisa" is rational in this situation. Because this patent is not about these subjects. Just look at the bigger picture: Corel copied Office suite apps almost pixel by pixel. I would be pretty angry after seeing this to screenshots: This is Office Excel: http://weborb.gcflearnfree.org/weborbassets/uploads/ID_82/workbook_2.png http://weborb.gcflearnfree.org/weborbassets/uploads/ID_82/wo... This is Corel Calc: https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/G/01/software/detail-page/CorelCalc_LG.jpg https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/G/01/software... Even the shade of blue is the same.
- chrisfosterelli 11y agoIndeed. The actual complaint that the EFF links to isn't because they copied their slider, it's that the entire interface as a whole has been copied and that they go as far as to call it the "Microsoft Word mode" in their documentation. I would agree a patent for a slider is a little ridiculous, but this is quite a bit more than that.
- nailer 11y agoIt's blue, uses tabbed toolbars, and gel effects. None of those things are new (though Microsoft really, really wants to pretend it invented tabbed toolbars). Yes, they look the same, and Corel is certainly making the same UI choices Microsoft did so their users coming from Microsoft platforms feel more familiar. Do we want to stop companies from doing that?
- mattlutze 11y agoYes. We likely do want to stop companies from attempting to steal users by literally aping the interface from a more successful competitor that spent millions of dollars in UI/UX/HUI research to develop it (opinions on the Office Ribbon notwithstanding). If you cut the title bar off the two screenshots in the previous post, I think most people would be at a loss to tell you which was actually Excel.
- ianamartin 11y agoStuff like this makes me really excited about the Samsung appeal to the Supreme Court here in the U.S. regarding their ongoing suit and countersuit with Apple. I'm an unapologetic Mac user at times, but I find myself intellectually on the side of Samsung in that case. If Samsung gets cert and a positive outcome from SCOTUS, the patent system here will be forced to reform. Stuff like this will simply go away. As it should.
- brazzledazzle 11y agoIt kind of bugs me that an OS maker is suing a software developer and utilizing a UI/UX design patent to do it.
- nitin_flanker 11y agoI don't think it is that stupid. There's a whole lot of designs available for a slider. It is just a design patent so it won't hurt any other company's/product design, they can easily swap it by making little changes or designing an entirely new design for such a small thing. As many people already linked the Corel Calc user interface design, which is exactly same as Microsoft's Excel. I don't think Microsoft is doing wrong by patenting their design elements.
- wstrange 11y agoExcept for the part where Microsoft wants 100% of Corel's profits. Does that sound even remotely reasonable?
- nitin_flanker 11y agoThat sounds ridiculously stupid. The design patent seems legit but, demanding for the entire profit is totally unreasonable.
- talles 11y agoThat's not much of a surprise considering that's from the same company that once patented the double click. https://newscientist.com/article/dn5072-microsoft-gains-double-clicking-patent https://newscientist.com/article/dn5072-microsoft-gains-doub...
- zekevermillion 11y agoA design patent protects purely ornamental features, thus it is not fair to criticize a design patent on the basis of it not being useful. Inherently, if it were useful, it would not be eligible for protection as a patented design. It may be fair to criticize the entire legal regime that affords patent protection to ornamental designs (e.g., the famous rectangle with rounded corners that caused a jury to find for Apple vs. Samsung).
- wstrange 11y agoWhat is interesting to me is that industry has conditioned us to view copying as a bad thing. Is there any invention that did not benefit from copying ideas that came before it? We all stand on the shoulders of giants. We need more copying, not less.
- alanh 11y agoA popular article on Ars Technica is entitled: "2015: The Year Microsoft started to get the benefit of the doubt." "Started." Indeed. But old habits die hard.