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> The design needs a bit of polish, but the core concept is just so damn good it's blatantly going to be copied. Chris Lacy (the author) delayed the release be

> The design needs a bit of polish, but the core concept is just so damn good it's blatantly going to be copied. Chris Lacy (the author) delayed the release because he was encouraged to patent the idea. Looks to me like that was a good move.

Roritharr 13y ago
I recommend everyone to check out his Android Launcher: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.chrislacy.actionlauncher.pro https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.chrislacy.... Im a big fan of it and find it makes my phone faster to use than any other launcher without having to learn new ui concepts.
oscargrouch 13y ago
> Looks to me like that was a good move Yeah until a point that nobody will be able to innovate anymore, even being original and inventive, because of patents into nuclear ideas or generic ideas.. Its the difference of "everybody against everybody" to "everybody working for everybody" I hope software patents became a thing of the past soon.. the concept of property and the concept of ideas do not belong to each other
wmt 13y ago
Indeed, patenting ideas is an excellent way to prevent free software from usign those ideas while proprietary software can just get the licensing costs from their profits.
- oscargrouch 13y ago
  Also, if the browser concept was patented, how could someone else innovate over browsers, if theres a need to pay for the privilege of being inventive?
- cbhl 13y ago
  Patenting ideas is also an excellent way to prevent someone else from doing what you suggest; the patent-holder merely needs to grant a royalty-free patent license to everyone once they have the patent. (See Sections 7 and 8 of GPLv2, for an example.)
- slashdotaccount 13y ago
  Patents and free software aren't necessarily incompatible. For example Raph Levien provides a royalty-free patent grant to software licensed under the GNU GPL that implements his patents. http://levien.com/patents.html http://levien.com/patents.html
deleted 13y ago
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- EddieRingle 13y ago
  For what it's worth, he explains his reasoning here: https://plus.google.com/104649936579980037256/posts/GAWL1HpQg7e https://plus.google.com/104649936579980037256/posts/GAWL1HpQ...
  - oscargrouch 13y ago
    "A few casual emails later and my new patent lawyer warned me that I might be unable to apply for a patent in certain important countries if I sell the app before filing an application.." That's what people that make a living with the patents system will do.. they will convice you how patents are important, and make you fear to not have any patents.. I did'nt see any conceptual explanation for why he is filling for patents.. only that his moved by fear and bad advices from actors that have something to gain for making people like him, entering into this game Also let my say that this is a bad strategy for a underdog.. because the base crowd for a underdog is the "green" folks.. hipsters, geeks, etc.. This crowd is very sensitive to this sort of things these days.. much more well-educated than the previous generations.. and they are the opinion leaders that can give a sustainable growth to a underdog.. Of course, there are curious people that will download it, and say "cool!!", but then, another app-dujour will beg for attention, and they will just move away.. The evangelizer type is very important, and they probably will move away once they are aware of the patent game.. unless of course instead of a cosmetic innovation you did a really important innovation.. something that everybody needs.. than people can just be arrogant and do whatever they want.. but for underdogs this is a risky game to play
    - oscargrouch 13y ago
      of course, some mogul like google could get interested, and because of the patent, will be forced to acquihire him.. than he can live a confortable life somewhere.. but in the end, this game only privilege the big ones.. so they can have control over innovation and platforms.. :/
    - 13y ago
TuringTest 13y ago
How can this be patented? It doesn't seem functionally no different than "open tab" and "open tab in the background", except that it opens a round notification instead of a tab-shaped one. Is there something else in it that's novel? Maybe the protocol for coordinating apps for opening the link in the background from a different app?
- Gormo 13y ago
  My immediate thought when I saw the video was "this is basically the same functionality as middle-clicking a link in Firefox". It looks like a very good implementation for Android, and good implementations are valuable and important, but the concept itself isn't original.
deleted 13y ago
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Roritharr 13y ago

I recommend everyone to check out his Android Launcher: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.chrislacy.actionlauncher.pro https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.chrislacy.... Im a big fan of it and find it makes my phone faster to use than any other launcher without having to learn new ui concepts.

oscargrouch 13y ago

> Looks to me like that was a good move Yeah until a point that nobody will be able to innovate anymore, even being original and inventive, because of patents into nuclear ideas or generic ideas.. Its the difference of "everybody against everybody" to "everybody working for everybody" I hope software patents became a thing of the past soon.. the concept of property and the concept of ideas do not belong to each other

wmt 13y ago

Indeed, patenting ideas is an excellent way to prevent free software from usign those ideas while proprietary software can just get the licensing costs from their profits.

oscargrouch 13y ago
Also, if the browser concept was patented, how could someone else innovate over browsers, if theres a need to pay for the privilege of being inventive?
cbhl 13y ago
Patenting ideas is also an excellent way to prevent someone else from doing what you suggest; the patent-holder merely needs to grant a royalty-free patent license to everyone once they have the patent. (See Sections 7 and 8 of GPLv2, for an example.)
slashdotaccount 13y ago
Patents and free software aren't necessarily incompatible. For example Raph Levien provides a royalty-free patent grant to software licensed under the GNU GPL that implements his patents. http://levien.com/patents.html http://levien.com/patents.html

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]

EddieRingle 13y ago
For what it's worth, he explains his reasoning here: https://plus.google.com/104649936579980037256/posts/GAWL1HpQg7e https://plus.google.com/104649936579980037256/posts/GAWL1HpQ...
- oscargrouch 13y ago
  "A few casual emails later and my new patent lawyer warned me that I might be unable to apply for a patent in certain important countries if I sell the app before filing an application.." That's what people that make a living with the patents system will do.. they will convice you how patents are important, and make you fear to not have any patents.. I did'nt see any conceptual explanation for why he is filling for patents.. only that his moved by fear and bad advices from actors that have something to gain for making people like him, entering into this game Also let my say that this is a bad strategy for a underdog.. because the base crowd for a underdog is the "green" folks.. hipsters, geeks, etc.. This crowd is very sensitive to this sort of things these days.. much more well-educated than the previous generations.. and they are the opinion leaders that can give a sustainable growth to a underdog.. Of course, there are curious people that will download it, and say "cool!!", but then, another app-dujour will beg for attention, and they will just move away.. The evangelizer type is very important, and they probably will move away once they are aware of the patent game.. unless of course instead of a cosmetic innovation you did a really important innovation.. something that everybody needs.. than people can just be arrogant and do whatever they want.. but for underdogs this is a risky game to play
  - oscargrouch 13y ago
    of course, some mogul like google could get interested, and because of the patent, will be forced to acquihire him.. than he can live a confortable life somewhere.. but in the end, this game only privilege the big ones.. so they can have control over innovation and platforms.. :/
  - 13y ago

TuringTest 13y ago

How can this be patented? It doesn't seem functionally no different than "open tab" and "open tab in the background", except that it opens a round notification instead of a tab-shaped one. Is there something else in it that's novel? Maybe the protocol for coordinating apps for opening the link in the background from a different app?

Gormo 13y ago
My immediate thought when I saw the video was "this is basically the same functionality as middle-clicking a link in Firefox". It looks like a very good implementation for Android, and good implementations are valuable and important, but the concept itself isn't original.

deleted 13y ago

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