[QUOTE]Breaking it down, here's the list of steps the patent actually covers:
1. During a call on a mobile device with a touch screen, with the phone user interface showing, the users touches either a menu button or an icon.
2. The device replaces the phone interface with a menu of application icons, including the phone icon.
3. A user's finger gesture chooses another app.
4. The app's interface comes up, all the while not dropping the call. The interface includes a "switch application icon" only when a phone call is occurring.
5. The user performs a finger gesture on the switch application icon, taking the user back to the phone interface.
There are also dependent claims that extend this concept in various ways. For example, the switch application icon could appear in the menu of application icons only when a phone call is underway. The menu icon or button could also simultaneously activate the speaker function, so the user can watch the screen and still hear the person.
Psychological advantage
You have to admire the craft of the lawyers on this one. Although the main claim is quite specific, it manages to nail down the steps in just broad enough a way to make to clumsy for a competitor to work around. There might be non-infringing ways to do something similar. Displaying a list of app names instead of icons during the phone call might be different enough. Having the switch app icon always there but dimmed when there is no phone call could be another way out.
But the point of such an application isn't to make it impossible for an Android competitor to offer an equivalent vital feature. After all, how often do you find it necessary to use an app in the middle of a phone call? The point is to force other companies to implement the feature in a way that is clumsy, inelegant or cumbersome. Scrolling through a list of names rather than a list of icons looks bad. And looks mean a lot when the subject is marketing consumer electronics.
The more rough edges Apple can force into Android and the more it can make other manufacturers omit functions -- the HTC case is just one example, and Apple has many more lawsuits running -- the more Apple can position the iPhone and iPad as the elegant and desirable consumer choices.
Whether this patent, the recent location services one, or others granted since getting into court with competitors, Apple continues to harvest a collection of legal clubs that can keep other handset manufacturers tripping time after time. It has yet to raise all these clubs in court, but it could -- and probably will in time.
Will that ultimately knock Android off the market? No. But the tactics could further force other vendors to focus on lower margin business, preserving the profit feeding grounds for Apple[/QUOTE]
[url]http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505124_162-57345445/apple-patents-using-apps-during-calls/[/url]
Not surprised in the slightest bit.
This isn't legal
you can't patent things as rudimentary as that
1 months into the future...
Apple patents glass covers.
[QUOTE=Mr. Smartass;33841425]This isn't legal
you can't patent things as rudimentary as that[/QUOTE]
One company patented being able to automatically open flash programs an internet browser without it being on a separate page, although I'm not sure if that ever got refuted. It happens.
Source: [url]http://www.netmechanic.com/news/vol7/browser_no1.htm[/url]
There are obscure companies that make patents just to collect court money from suing major companies like Microsoft, Google, Apple, etc.
once again proving that apple is rotten to the core
You'd think they would have patented everything by now.
Can this fall under thought policing?
[QUOTE=T.F.W.O.;33841463]Can this fall under thought policing?[/QUOTE]
One could argue that SOPA also falls under thought policing, but nope.
[QUOTE=A B.A. Survivor;33841428]1 months into the future...
Apple patents glass covers.[/QUOTE]
Didn't they already? I'm fairly certain glass covers were in the list of "features you cannot incorporate into a tablet computer without violating our copyright" that Apple released (also on that list were touch screens and rectangular shapes).
Up next: Apple patents going to the store.
Apple really should have patented apps while they had the chance.
Apple patents making patents
[QUOTE=Mlisen14;33841658]Apple really should have patented apps while they had the chance.[/QUOTE]
Well if this trend keeps up, they'll probably find a way to patent apps anyway. :v:
Patent all the things
Apple patents using plastic in a smartphone. They're doing this in fear really. They're gonna go down eventually. At least the iphone is.
[QUOTE=A B.A. Survivor;33841428]1 months into the future...
Apple patents glass covers.[/QUOTE]
Did they patent their devices exploding when you drop them yet? I swear they put some kind of explosive in my iPod.
[QUOTE=TheDamnWizards!;33841865]Did they patent their devices exploding when you drop them yet? I swear they put some kind of explosive in my iPod.[/QUOTE]
your device must suck. i've dropped my iphone a dozen times and nothing has happened to it.
and it looks like i made the right call, i love using apps while calling.
Can I patent patent trolling and just sue everyone who's making money just by using patents?
I really feel like doing that.
Fucking cunts
I'm gonna patent running fullscreen applications on a unix-based operating system
lol Apple is so pathetically insecure about their own products that they resort to these ridiculous means of dealing with competition. It's like they get butthurt every time one of their products isn't vastly superior to a competitors product and instead of making a better product, they'd rather pull a bunch of strings and then bitch about how they're being "copied". This is clear abuse of the patent system.
The reason they get away with it is because they have their brainwashed cult fanbase to back them up so that Apple has a shoulder to cry on
Ok, I want to walk up to the guy who though this was a good idea, and kick the shit outa him. Apple needs to learn that innovation is how you get rid of competition, not being a bitch whenever someone makes something better. Apple does the equivilant of shoving sand in your eye and then kicking you in the nuts in terms of fighting back.
[QUOTE=Dark-Energy;33841969]
The reason they get away with it is because they have their brainwashed cult fanbase to back them up so that Apple has a shoulder to cry on[/QUOTE]
uhm
no the reason they get away with it is because the US patent office allows them to get away with it.
[QUOTE=thisispain;33841878]your device must suck. i've dropped my iphone a dozen times and nothing has happened to it.
and it looks like i made the right call, i love using apps while calling.[/QUOTE]
My iPod 4 practically exploded when I dropped it really low accidentally. The front camera was gone and so was most of the front. I could see the mainboard everywhere.
[QUOTE=rinoaff33;33841437]One company patented being able to automatically open flash programs an internet browser without it being on a separate page, although I'm not sure if that ever got refuted. It happens.
Source: [url]http://www.netmechanic.com/news/vol7/browser_no1.htm[/url]
There are obscure companies that make patents just to collect court money from suing major companies like Microsoft, Google, Apple, etc.[/QUOTE]
Or the patent to NOT having to click to activate every flash window, which severely screws over Opera
I'm going to patent breathing.
Alright now everyone, either stop breathing or start paying me.
Is there anything apple hasn't patented yet?
Fuck off apple.
At this rate, Apple will have patented oxygen within the next 6 months - 2 years time.
It's a shame how often the patent system is abused.
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