Just a note that most of the patents referred to in the article are design patents, and not utility patents. For instance, the garbage can patent is a patent on the Mac OS X garbage can *icon*, and not the idea of a garbage can. The two are very, very different.

Others, though, are indeed utility patents. I too am confused on how the cron-oriented patent was obtained, but perhaps I am misunderstanding it.

We posted a follow up article with an explanation of the differences between the two kinds of patents.



Thanks for stopping in.

Bryan
Editor
The Mac Observer

My apologies. I didn't realize the comment engine would edit out the link. For those interested, the article is titled "Understanding Patents & How They Apply To Apple."

FWIW, I am glad I found this site from the referral traffic. I realize most of those reading this likely hate what we cover at The Mac Observer, but I think WinCustomize is interesting. It's always good to keep up with the rest of industry is up to.

Thanks again,

Bryan
Editor
TMO

The article Bryan refers to is http://www.macobserver.com/editorial/2003/03/05.1.shtml

I think on a graphics oriented site like this you'll find a Lot of MacOS users (myself included).

This particular topic was really interesting since it really, in my view, outlines my biggest beef with the "Apple culture". That is, that they seem to believe that they are the center of computer innovation.

Object Desktop, for instance, originally came out for OS/2 in 1995. Yet somehow, features that we came up with are regularly claimed by Mac users to have been retroactively taken from the Mac. Whether that be our alpha blended shadows or zoomers or skinning.

As a Mac user myself, I use it for a great number of tasks. It has worked pretty well overall but like Windows, it is no where near perfect and get incensed when I see Mac fanatics come and act like MacOS X is nearly perfect and how terrible "Windoze" is (I'd put MS Movie Maker 2.0 against iMovie any day for instance).

God,I hate that word (idiot) > .

I could not agree more with this article, big businesses are pushing the smaller people around and taking over the WORLD. This news is very similar to the Windows vs. Lindows lawsuit right now. Why does any corporation feel they should have the right to own an idea that is so widely used but so many different people on so many different machines that it has indeed because its own word. Windows may own it own name, but not the right to restrict the word window from any computer organizations' vocabulary. Apple too is playing the smae card and taking hold of ideas that are truely not soley theirs anymore. A trashcan is a trashcan, call it what you will (recycle Bin, etc.) it does the same function and nothing can stop that. And to be honest there is nothing truley orginal with the design of the apple trash bin (it is a metal trash bin, i have on ein my office). Anyway thanks for the article, I found it very amusing and thought provoking. Wincustomize you are now on my top list of sites to check each day, keep up the good stories.

ok for starters i have a liquid cooled 2100xp,1 gig ddr,seagate u320 scsi hdd (3.6ms seek time) gf4 ti4600, with win 2000 pro..... it smokes, the most stable os ive ever run. ive left it running for weeks without a reboot. if ur having probs with ur's its probably user or hardware related. but yes im seeing both mac and M.S. hordeing intelectual property that wasent created by them..frogboy has given an example (window Fx). what i think is funny that the companys can get u all fighting and passionate over their os'es, divide and conquor....each pointing the finger at the other while doing the same..... dun get suckerd in by their sad attemts to draw away form the bigger issue... {patenting someone elses intelectual property is inmoral}....they "borrow" from the lil guys wait a few years then publish it as their new design or concept. if u think this is something new where have u been? thy TMO for being truely journalistic . ur report was insiteful and informative.