[iain]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dai13371

But my point is that people should not be able to patent mere ideas, which are nothing but thought processes, but working prototypes or working models which explains how it is done.

given that the iPhone does actually exist, and does actually do what it does, i'm assuming things have actually gotten past the idea stage.

Quote:

Recently apple patented 3d gestures by which they said tablets and phones could determine a gesture by people waving in the air. We have seen this idea in many science fiction films for instance Minority Report long before apple decided to patent it.

presumably Apple would argue that they haven't merely patented the idea, but the technology that makes the things actually work in real life, rather than pretend to work in a sic fi film.

Iain

[paulbrock]

my understanding of patents is they are more about *how* something is done, not just what it does. And in this case, that would be more about the underlying software, not merely the user interface that is used.

[alanwarwic]

As yet I've never come across a rock climber charging a toll on his 'patented climb'.
It is allowable to program to get the similar results. Whilst techniques are often the same, the code simply has to be your own.

I imagine non physical and non coded patents are a much bigger can of worms.

[david.boobis]

Quote:

Originally Posted by iain

given that the iPhone does actually exist, and does actually do what it does, i'm assuming things have actually gotten past the idea stage.

presumably Apple would argue that they haven't merely patented the idea, but the technology that makes the things actually work in real life, rather than pretend to work in a sic fi film.

Iain

There are plenty of examples of where Apple (and other companies, but they don't get the same exposure) have patented ideas and theory with not even a working prototype to show for it. That is what's wrong with the American patent system, that you only need to show how something might work for it to be patentable. If someone then comes along and achieves the same results in an entirely different, more efficient, and totally unconnected way, there are plenty of patent courts (mainly in Texas it seems) that will back up the patent holder even if they haven't done anything since the original filing. Here are some links to patents that don't have anything physical to show for them:

Using photovoltaic cells to illuminate a screen
Method for obfuscating information on a screen
3D imaging and display

That last one was submitted in 2005 and has still not entered the prototyping stage.