The US Patent and Trademark Office has revealed a mammoth document that can only be described as
The iPhone Patent, a 371-page spectacular that covers Apple's handheld multi-touch UI paradigm in excruciating detail. Many of the mocked-up screen shots depicted in the paperwork are dead ringers for screens that we're well acquainted with in the production phone, while others represent ideas that either haven't finished cooking or eventually found their way into the Cupertino circular file (follow the break for a picture of a home screen with dedicated "Blog" and dictionary apps, for instance). The application also mentions "modules" for video conferencing, GPS, and other currently non-existent (though
widely expected) functionality. And in case there's any doubt over who was responsible for this compendium of legalese, industrial design, and technical diagrams, one only need look at the header of page 1: "Jobs et al." Yep, Steve himself wasn't the least bit shy about taking credit atop an entire column of company A-listers for inventing the iPhone's trademark user interface, which we're guessing came about from a mix of equal parts truth, ego, and ass-kissing from the legal department down the hall. Seriously though, if you're Scott Forstall down there at number two on the Inventors list, what are you going to do -- go boardroom showdown all John Sculley-style?
[Via
Cellpassion]
posted May 30th 2008 3:33AM
Really engadget? Really? We don't care...
Mind shutting the fuck up?
engadget can post whatever they want, because i don't pay money to read it
I understand where this person is coming from (esp. if you use RSS feeds as your main way of viewing content). Engadget does seem to report on almost everything Apple related, they should really make their own subsite for it.
... oh wait, isn't that what TUAW.com is suppose to be?
Really, if you don't like the news then:
a) Don't read it.
b) Go to another news site which doesn't cover it.
But I've got news for you buddy, journalists cover this kind of stuff... yeah. Even if you don't personally care doesn't mean others feel the same. ::rolls eyes::
@ Tony Rayo: I'm with you, they should just bring the TUAW folks on board here and merge the sites, since 30-40% of their content is a mirror of Engadget's apple news anyway, and often delayed.
Hey Andy, if you don't like his comment don't read it...
P.S. Good editors care what their readers think. He's a reader, he has an opinion, and he's allowed to share it.
"P.S. Good editors care what their readers think. He's a reader, he has an opinion, and he's allowed to share it."
You might have a point if his opinion was shared constructively.
I have been reading TUAW for a pretty long time, in fact, it brought me to Engadget. However, I find Engadget has much more actual Breaking Apple news. I mean, TUAW is great for little things, but big news is normally carried by Engadget. I would be totally for "Engadget Mac" or something, actually, just keep the name but form a closer collaboration. As long as we don't lose the current TUAW Bloggers.
flashpoint should add a comment...
Of course he's allowed his opinion and his comment. But using "we" just showed what an asshole he is.
Patent from a year ago about a well known device is not news.
This kinda pisses me off, because some of these ideas are mine. Here's a list of product suggestions I sent to Apple on January 21, 2006.
http://www.chadupton.com/blog/index.php/2008/05/31/some-of-the-ipod-and-iphone-ideas-were-mine/
Hmmmm.... interesting. Is this another patent or is this the first one done for the iPhone??
I don't get it. This is the first gen iPhone patent, and it's dated 5-29-08? Didn't I see something similar about a year ago on here?
It was published on May 29, 2008 but filed on September 5, 2007.
Is the iPhone patentable? I mean it's not an 'invention' is it? There were music/touch screen phones before this ...
Shows you how ridiculous the patent system is. For new products made by a big company, they're handed out like candy.
I actually have a genuinely new product idea, but patenting it is going to cost me thousands - money which I simply don't have. On top of that, should someone steal my idea, the patent office don't help in any way for taking your money; you have to hire your own lawyers, fight your own battles.
The patent system needs to be more like copyright..
yes it is patentable
And yes it blends!
@r3loaded (and engadget): This is not a patent; it is a published patent application. This document grants no intellectual property rights.
First, as others have pointed out, this is *not* a patent, it's a published patent application and grants no IP rights to Apple.
Second, (also as others have pointed out) this application was filed in Sept. 2007. Moreover, it also claims priority to applications filed in June 2007, Jan. 2007, and Sept. 2006.
Third, the claims of this application (which is all that matters when determining the scope of IP rights) seem to be directed at the iPhone's multitouch feature, which in Sept. 2006 probably was a new invention, particularly in a mobile phone.
@r3loaded Your little rant about the patent system adds nothing to the debate about IP. You seem to just be a bitter sole inventor who thinks he has a great idea, but doesn't want to be bothered taking the time to look for investors or venture capital. If you truly feel your idea is so great, why isn't it worth sacrificing for the few thousand dollars it would take to get it off the ground?
Render,
If the patent system was like copyright, then there would be TONS more ridiculous patents out there because there would be no patent office examiner making applicants narrow their claims.
It would cost you a LOT more money to enforce any patent rights as you would have to change the patent application before you could assert any rights to ensure validity.
As it stands, if you spend the 10k to get a patent application on file, you can acquire venture capital with the application rights as security. If someone infringes your later issued patent, you can go to a "patent troll" firm and they'll sue FOR NO MONEY DOWN. That's right, they only get paid if they win. You're probably one of those idiots that hates "patent troll" firms too aren't you?
You should research or just think before you espouse policy ideas.
Mikey,
Give up. No one here cares to know what the patent system is, how it works, or what changes could actually improve it. They want to remain blissfully ignorant shouting "down with the man, down with conformity" in unison (pun intended).
Anybody else notice the 'optical sensor' on the front there? Could that be for video calls? Or maybe I'm just being a tard, I want this damn thing to come out already!
Surely that's the ambient light sensor?
That's probably just the ambient light detector that adjusts the backlight. Current model has that too (as do the MBPs).
The man's a dangerous megalomaniac.
And I'm still not fussed.
And you know him how? Quite a serious allegation for someone who's not fussed!
He always lists himself as primary inventor on all Apple products.
In his shoes, I would too.
They need someone at the helm, or they'll end up gasping for air like they were in the Amelio era.
Is 'Steve Jobs takes a crap' going to be the next headline on Engadget?
You took time to write a response about an article you don't like. Looks like someone has a crush on Steve.
@Nick
Yeah... because people never want to have their voice heard about a topic that they feel negatively about. Only people that have positive things to say should ever post a comment......
.....makes me sad to share the same name as you.
@ Nick
looks like you have a crush on stupidity - cock!
Who cares about Steve Snobs anymore? More mini-notebook news please!
woah, I wonder if snobs would ever contemplate some sort of eee pc killer
And go into a market where people can actually afford apple products on a mass scale? Yeah.. dream on!
Why is it so amazing that Steve Jobs would have his name on the patent. It is obvious by the article and the comments that you are not aware of IP filing and declarations. The USPTO and WIPO require that only individuals who had actual direct effort in the development and production of the item to be patented are listed on the patent. And if ever asked by the Patent offices (in any country filed) they must prove their participation and to what percentage their efforts can be attributed.
In addition to being a good speaker and marketing genius, Jobs is also a technically brilliant man.
The patent was pending when the iPhone was released. This is probably a final after addendum, which can follow up to 18 months after filing of the original patent.
It's not exactly standard for the CEO to be working on development teams. They usually have other things to be doing.
Perhaps that's what makes Apple different, that the CEO is involved on a technical scale.
yeah, jobs didn't actually design the iphone at all...
@ben
yes, it's not standard to have a CEO working on things.
Is Apple 'standard'? I mean sure people hate them but Steve and the way he runs the company seems to be a top down dictatorship, albiet benevolent.
Who's to say he didn't walk into a room, draw a bunch of stuff on a board and say 'make this'
That's a patentable idea, just because it took other people a year or more to make it doesn't mean he didn't have the original idea and deserve the name on the patent.
Interesting - but a couple of comments and replies which (if you work with patents are well known). First - the order of the listed inventors has no real meaning however, usually, the lead inventor takes first place. In other cases this is usually also decided on an alphabetical basis. In other words.. if ego is at stake, first place..otherwise, no one really bothers..
The date that was referred to above is the publication date of the patent. The filing date is Sept 07. This is normal - all patents are made public approximately 18 months after they are first filed. Although depending on the work load in any given patent office - this does drift from time to time..
Just hoping to clarify..
GIVE STEVE A NOBEL PRIZE AND MAKE HIM POPE!
Such awesomemness needs recognising and rewarding.
Correction, 2nd line. Instead of "awesomemness" read "awesomeness".
Man, in the time you've wasted frothing over the minor details of this non-news you could have planted a tree. Or two.
Did you plant one while writing that?
Once you hear the flush you'll know I'm done.
Tone it down a bit; this hate thing for JOBS. The karma will follow you into the next world. Not a good thing if you meet Steve over there... heh?
What does 'Jobs et al.' mean?
don't you know anything about Apple? Steve jobs has a marionette named Al. he carries it around everywhere, to board meetings, trade shows, even backstage at WWDC and MacWorld... Steve speaks french to Al, that's why it says Steve et Al.
darkroom is absolutely correct. people who speak latin will insist that it's the abbreviation for et alii ("and others"), but they're just wrong.
"Jobs and others"
@ Darkroom ...
Really ? If so that is really funny!
@Eric Tousignant
...........
@Eric Tousignant
...yyyeah! Really. It's all true. Some people even believe that he's dating the puppet.
'shakes head'
When the iPhone received the black pencil award, the designers list was topped by Jobs. Actually, it was the same on every Apple piece in the winners list, even the new Apple aluminum keyboard.
Therefore, I wasn't very surprised by this one. Because, you know, Steve invented the iPhone. He didn't build the prototypes or write the software code, but the iPhone is his vision and he did take an actual part in the product design process.
What a true visionary.
Who knows what the future holds? Imagine user-replaceable batteries and memory cards!
http://www.apple.com/support/iphone/service/battery/
What's the problem? I've had mine since nearly opening day, and don't need either. Nor do most users. Oh wait - I get it, you don't like Apple. Tsk, about had me there. Enjoy your flip phone.
never going to happen with memory cards. They make their money offering different size products and people paying way more per GB on the higher models than any memory card would have cost.
"Who knows what the future holds? Imagine user-replaceable batteries and memory cards!"
The truly visionary thing is not having those; what may seem like a much-desired feature to you hasn't been much of an issue at all to the tens of millions of people that actually bought these devices.
John,
agreed; same can be said for the battteries.
farukates,
Millions also buy phones (many more millions) with memory cards and removable batteries.
You don't have to touch the memory card or battery if you don't want to. However, given one or the other will die well before the rest of the phone, it makes sense to make them removable (quite aside from the fact that you can have power immediately with a simple swap of the battery, or new data with the swap of some flash...).
Of course, I have no doubt it's all an ecomonic decision to screw the userbase and put more crap into landfill before the next round of upgrades.
Stop posting these f*cking iPhone stories....most overrated piece of sh*t ever talked about on this site.
And before you complain about this post adding to the "popularity" of these articles and the amount of comments they recieve, THIS IS THE ONLY PLACE WHERE YOU CAN VOICE YOUR OPINION. THERE ARE NO FORUMS. THERE ARE NO CHAT ROOMS. THIS IS IT.
Yeah, I feel the same way. I, too, wish that Engadget didn't come to my home or my office and force me to read the Apple articles at gunpoint. They just wont qui.... wait, they don't do that.
@ Greg
Dear dumbass:
http://www.engadget.com/contact/comment/
Signed, the link at the top of the page which you missed because you were too busy foaming at the mouth because you hate Apple so much.
But thanks for adding to the post count on this article.
And by the way, if it's really a problem for you, you can always, oh I don't know... NOT READ Apple related articles. Bet that never crossed your mind, huh? There's also a way to filter Apple news out of Engadget, but I'm sure you're too stupid or too lazy to do it that way because complaining loudly is just easier.
Pwned!!
Two thoughts.
The iPhone went on sale in June 2007 yet the patent file date Sept 2007. Pretty gutsy since someone could have filed a patent between those two dates and get in before hands. Granted the 3rd party might not get a patent because of prior art (iPhone on sale) but would mean Apple might be handicapped when filing a lawsuit.
One of the way of having a patent invalidated is to prove that one of the inventors didn't actually have an input or contribution. I hope Apple actually have documentation and notes of Steve Jobs making design and development changes.
But they claim priority to 2006 in the patent app. This is part of a family of patent applications.
And, as others have said, this can only be described as "one of a few core iPhone patent applications," (see also the art that's referenced/included...thus the immense size of the doc) not "The iPhone Patent."
Your second thought was my first.
Listing Jobs first technically has no effect, but it's just DARING someone to assert invalidity based on incorrectly identified inventorship. Why is it all VP's and such and no engineers? That's not usually what I see.
On your first thought, they claimed priority to some provisionals, but unless you have 112 support there, that priority is worthless. I definitely would have gotten this monster on file BEFORE the public release.
For a second there, I thought the news was his middle initial (what does the P stand for? Percival? Penny? Pentagon?). Then I realized that there was more serious ass-kissing going on.
a quick wikipedia look revealed the highly unusual "Paul"
STEVE JOBS INVENTED THE iPHONE?!?!
This is almost as interesting as that story about the pixelated "3g" iPhone logo
I liked the article. Apple products actually tend to work longer than hardboot till my computer is dead Vista. Apple is sexy, Stevey B is not.
Ah, guys....whether this is a patent or not, the patent laws say that everyone who had input into an invention has to be named on the patent or it's void! So, companies always lump in everyone who ever said 'make the icons jitter before you move them' etc to protect themselves from having the patent voided later by someone claiming they should have been on when they weren't.
It's standard practice.
Well, I would imagine Steve was a huge part of "inventing" the iPhone. I have serious doubts he did any of the work itself, but I would imagine much of the vision and the idea came from him. "Lets make it a Giant Touch Screen" Things like that. Nothing makes it out of Apple unless Steve loves it.
Its so sad how he can take credit for apple tech-no-vation just because he is co-founder, chairman and ceo and gets to do the presentation. Does he really come up with all the good ideas or does he just sign off on them? Sometimes execs make me sick.
quite a few things interesting on the patent iPhone diagram.
"optical sensor"
"blog"
"dictionary"
sounds like iPhone 2, perhaps.
Is it any surprise that two of the inventors (Lemay; Stephen O.; Herz; Scott) mentioned are also on the microsoft surface patent list?!
Well there are five year olds who hold patents, because to be the primary person you just have to be the person who has originating idea
All of you screaming and complaining that Jobs gets credit when apparently he does nothing don't seem to know what they're talking about. Read the book "inside Steve's brain" and you'll understand how he works and how much of an influence (in most cases positive) he is.
Just because he didn't write the code doesn't mean he wasn't a major force in development.
One of the features I'm really hoping is for video conferencing. Here's some evidence. (I know that patent applications often contain features that never materialize, but there are plenty of explicit references to video conferencing.)
"In some embodiments, the functions may include telephoning, video conferencing, e-mailing, instant messaging, blogging, digital photographing, digital videoing, web browsing, digital music playing, and/or digital video playing."
"The device supports a variety of applications, such as one or more of the following: a telephone application, a video conferencing application, an e-mail application..."
" In some embodiments, an optical sensor is located on the front of the device so that the user's image may be obtained for videoconferencing while the user views the other video conference participants on the touch screen display." [Note the plural 'participants']
"...initiate and/or facilitate communications by telephone 138, video conference 139, e-mail 140, or IM 141; and so forth. Embodiments of user interfaces and associated processes using contacts module 137 are described further below."
"..the videoconferencing module 139 may be used to initiate, conduct, and terminate a video conference between a user and one or more other participants."
If you file a patent and do not list all of the contributors, it can be declared invalid. There is little doubt that Jobs was involved in designing/defining this part of the phone, so he had to be listed on the patent app or Apple could lose the rights to it. As for him being listed first, well, he is the boss. I doubt that any of the other inventors cared that much about the order.
If you don't want to read about Apple's innovations maybe you should to go www.blankscreen.com and read about all of Microsoft's innovations.
I think there are two main reasons why Apple files so many patent applications.
1. They're tired of Microsoft and others repeatedly ripping off their designs year after year, and
2. They're tired of being sued for patent violations by small companies holding patents. There is a patent industry out there consisting of litigation minded small companies seeking to create grounds for an out of court settlement on some obscure patent violation. Apple has paid off on a number of these out of court and it has to be getting tiresome. So stepping up their own patent filings has to be partly defensive to preempt such opportunists.
Steve Jobs is God or at least the iGod. he can do whatever he wants, i love him so much, i'm a very loyal follower of him and all the Apple products