10 ms·
one-click patent is one of the most stupid patents
by fbn79 8y ago
one-click patent is one of the most stupid patents
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- yAnonymous 8y agoApple are also well in the business for stupid patents, so they know better than to question it.
- dplgk 8y agoNot sure why's you're getting down voted. I guess because your comment is considered whataboutism and the patent is not defending Apple. But yes, for example, Apple's slide to unlock phone patent is equally as dumb.
- jayess 8y agoOr the pull-down screen "rubbery stretch" effect is also a stupid patent.
- close04 8y agoApple's problem isn't that the patents are stupid, it's that the inventions or ideas never belonged to them in the first place. In the vast majority of cases the idea or implementation already existed. Like the slide to unlock which was used at least since 2005 in a commercial device. [0][1] They also tried patenting a method to reduce power consumption of a chip by reducing voltage. Something that isn't just a law of nature (thus unpatentable) but was also used decades before ever since ICs were developed (thus "prior art"). One of the most controversial patents is the "rectangle with rounded corners". This was a design patent and these in general are usually not just very hard to enforce but also stupid in most cases. [0] https://www.gsmarena.com/neonode_n1m-1137.php https://www.gsmarena.com/neonode_n1m-1137.php [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tj-KS2kfIr0&t=240s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tj-KS2kfIr0&t=240s
- alain94040 8y agoClose, but not quite. The video you show is missing a key element of what Apple patented: the animation that tells you what to do to unlock. Apple didn't patent a swipe to unlock, it patented the version where a visual guide is provided to swipe to unlock: 1. A method of unlocking a hand-held electronic device, the device including a touch-sensitive display, the method comprising: detecting a contact with the touch-sensitive display at a first predefined location corresponding to an unlock image; continuously moving the unlock image on the touch-sensitive display in accordance with movement of the contact while continuous contact with the touch screen is maintained, wherein the unlock image is a graphical, interactive user-interface object with which a user interacts in order to unlock the device; and unlocking the hand-held electronic device if the moving the unlock image on the touch-sensitive display results in movement of the unlock image from the first predefined location to a predefined unlock region on the touch-sensitive display. As you can see if you watch the video carefully, that older device had no feedback regarding how to unlock, and whether the unlock even worked. It makes it a more confusing, hard to use device. Hence a new patent that fixes those limitations makes sense.
- close04 8y ago> continuously moving the unlock image Good find. Wouldn't anyone be able to bypass by simply not having a "continuously moving image", just the suggestion to slide and a button that disappears while sliding?
- MBCook 8y agoThey come up with good ideas and want to protect them. As long as the patent office is willing to grant them why SHOULDN’T they apply? “Oh competitors who copy everything we do, even sometimes in cargo cult fashion... we didn’t patent this. Please don’t copy it.”
- Semaphor 8y agoIt's a question of ethics/morality. Same for tax loopholes. The point from OP btw is that they DIDN'T come up with any idea, yet still patented it or at least tried to. Which is the opposite of what the patent system seeks to achieve.
- MBCook 8y agoIs it? If they don’t not only will they get ripped off (losing the benefit of their good/unique design) the competitor may patent the feature and then Apple would have to spend millions of dollars and years to overturn the patent and hopefully get attorneys fees. It sucks, but it’s a perfectly sane business decision. They open themselves to liability if they don’t.
- goldenkey 8y agoFor real! Amazon even sued Barnes and Nobles for having an Express Lane button. Here is more info on this ridiculousness: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1-Click https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1-Click
- amsilprotag 8y agoFrom the end of the article: As for the one-click payment system that helped build both their online stores, the US patent to that expired in September 2017. I could understand allowing a months-long patent of this kind, but 18 years seems about an order of magnitude too long.
- dothedishes 8y agoI agree with you- I am pro-patents and patent-vehicles but there needs to be a reform of system where it has time limit based on how innovative and hard to come up the idea or piece of work would be. This way intelligent ideas can be rewarded.
- duxup 8y agoI really like your idea of months long, but I would fear a situation where with so many things in patents if you allowed months long patents, there would quickly be some legislation that turns it into years ;)
- peapicker 8y agoIt take 5-7 years just to get a patent at the moment, the patent system is so backed up. (personal experience, I have 2 and have 4 more in the process)...
- Spooks 8y agonow I am off to patent the double-click payment button!
- fenwick67 8y agoOr the 0.5 click purchase button
- ahoy 8y agospeaking of 0.5 clicks (presses really but who's counting), I'm reminded of this classic https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpk2tdsPh0A https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpk2tdsPh0A
- flyingfences 8y agoYou ever have days when you just wake up feeling QP-misaligned?
- merhard 8y agoOnly on days when I forget to build up speed for 12 hours.
- benmowa 8y agoso keydown() instead of keyup()? Dragging my already-depressed-cursor off the button is my only out, you cant take that one away from me!
- mcintyre1994 8y agomouseover :)
- onemoresoop 8y agoApple could have patented the swipe but they couldn't, could they?
- damon_c 8y agoI am thinking a buy on hover would increase sales much better.
- peeters 8y agoOr invent the next phase of targeted ads. Figure out (algorithmically/via tracking) what the person wants and just ship it to them. If they don't want it they can ship it back. Basically Columbia House but for everything.
- damon_c 8y agoIf it isn't happening already, this will happen. You should patent it! edit: The more I think about it, I wouldn't be surprised if someday in the not distant enough future this is the way 90% of all commerce happens.
- peeters 8y agoI always wonder what someone's supposed to do to not violate this. Like their checkout process naturally takes one click. So now they're forced to add some arbitrary intermediate screen to not violate the patent?