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They've been doing this a while, people | 355 comments | Create New Account
Comments belong to whoever posts them. Please notify us of inappropriate comments.
Patenting a form of perpetual motion
Authored by: Ian Al on Friday, April 05 2013 @ 11:30 AM EDT
Apple patent RE41,922: Method and apparatus for providing translucent images on a computer display
This application .Iadd.is a broadening reissue of U.S. Pat. No. 6,072,489, issued on Jun. 6, 2000. U.S. Pat. No. 6,072,489 .Iaddend.is a continuation-in-part of patent application Ser. No. 08/060,572, filed May 10, 1993 under the title "Method and Apparatus for Displaying an Overlay Image," now U.S. Pat. No. 5,638,501 on behalf of Gough et al. and assigned to the same assignee as herein, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. Priority rights .Iadd.and claims of benefit .Iaddend.based upon this earlier-filed patent application are claimed. .Iadd.More than one reissue application has been filed for the reissue of U.S. Pat. No. 6,072,489. The reissue applications are application Ser. Nos. 10/163,748 (the present application), and 12/437,500 a continuation reissue of U.S. Pat. No. 6,072,489. .Iaddend.
Apple patent 5949432: Method and apparatus for providing translucent images on a computer display
This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 08/452,422 filed May 26, 1995, now abandoned, which is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 08/130,079 filed Sep. 30, 1993, which is a continuation-in-part of U.S. application Ser. No. 08/060,572 filed May 10, 1993, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,638,501.
translucent
adj 1: allowing light to pass through diffusely; "translucent amber"; "semitransparent curtains at the windows" [syn: translucent, semitransparent]

No wonder Apple are trying so hard to make this work. A display screen on a computer is technically unable to provide translucent images. The display can only simulate the appearance of semitransparent images over a background image.

This is an instance that demonstrates patent continuation madness and persistence with an 'invention' which is not makeable by anyone let alone a PHOSITA of computer programming.

BTW, audio cards in computers have been doing the detection of cables being plugged in for some years, now. Of course, that was an inna-computa invention and not an inna-mobile phone invention. They use a different sort of electricity.

---
Regards
Ian Al
Software Patents: It's the disclosed functions in the patent, stupid!

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

They've been doing this a while, people
Authored by: Anonymous on Friday, April 05 2013 @ 07:19 PM EDT
Look at the dates,
Publication number..US5949432 A
Publication type.......Grant
Application number.08/827,764
Publication date.......Sep 7, 1999
Filing date...............Apr 11, 1997

I remember very early in MacOS-X showing my terminal window
to a colleague who was forced to administer Windows systems
but was really a fervent Linux devotee. I had green text on black,
and as I varied the "transparency" to make visible the code on a
web page underneath, he said "Ooo, that's cute". The same terminal
also had drag'n'drop, file to path.

This new act is political. Apple haven't said boo to any of the *nuxes
that now use the same features ...

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

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