USPTO gets one right! Rejects Apple's pinch-to-zoom patent claim

[Poke]

Not so fast.

http://www.phonearena.com/news/USPT...cts-Apples-pinch-to-zoom-patent-claim_id45824

 

[mperdue]

If you accept the idea of software patents then the pinch to zoom functionality should have been patentable. Personally, I don't think patents should extend to software. Hopefully the patent offices of the world will some day agree.

 

[jayn_j]

It gets harder and harder each day to distinguish between software patents and hardware ones. Every device out there has a significant chunk of embedded code necessary for the function of the device.

Would Apple's claims been ruled valid if the algorithm had been built into the firmware of the touch panel? What if the logic had been coded in an ASIC? Valid if it had been integrated into the sensor chip as hard coded logic?

Could make a case that anything more complex than a screwdriver would run into the software issue.

 

[mperdue]

It gets harder and harder each day to distinguish between software patents and hardware ones. Every device out there has a significant chunk of embedded code necessary for the function of the device.

Would Apple's claims been ruled valid if the algorithm had been built into the firmware of the touch panel? What if the logic had been coded in an ASIC? Valid if it had been integrated into the sensor chip as hard coded logic?

Could make a case that anything more complex than a screwdriver would run into the software issue.

Which is why, I suspect, software patents exist. I'm still against software patents in general.