Microsoft Patents Doubleclick

[Article]:http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99995072
[Text of the patent]:http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=/netahtml/srchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=6,727,830.WKU.&OS=PN/6,727,830&RS=PN/6,727,830

Excerpt:

> Microsoft has successfully patented using short, long or double clicks to launch different applications on “limited resource computing devices” – presumably PDAs and mobile phones. The US patent was granted on 27 April.

It’s just another example of how broken the US patent system has become. You gotta ask: does this patent really protect innovation?

There’s another side: I read another article where someone was arguing that if he had his own cool innovation, his best course of action would be to keep it secret. He could patent it, but then everyone would know, and a big company would just use it, and it would be too expensive for him to fight it.

Litigation is expensive. Since it’s expensive, it tilts things in favor of richer, larger companies. Patent everything you can, even the obvious stuff you didn’t invent, and it’s too expensive for anything but a richer company to fight. depressing….

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