“Microsoft found its latest request for a multiple-judge review, in a long-running patent-infringement suit with Canadian tech firm i4i, rejected by a federal appeals court. Microsoft had asked for a panel of 11 judges to review its arguments in the case, in which i4i alleges that Microsoft Word 2003 and 2007 violate its custom XML-related patents. In August 2009, a federal judge in a U.S. District Court ordered Microsoft to pay $300 million and pull copies of Word 2003 and 2007 from store shelves within 90 days, a ruling that set off months of legal maneuvering.”
There is one ting about this whole lawsuit that I have yet to see anyone make mention of – The name of the company. “i4i” aka Eye for an Eye. I thought it was freaking hilarious.
From Engadget
http://www.engadget.com/2010/04/01/microsoft-seeking-patent-for-win…
Microsoft seeking patent for Windows Phone 7 Series panoramic GUI
The US Patents and Trademark Office has today made public a Microsoft patent application (serial no. 240,729) related to the graphical user interface found on the hotly anticipated Windows Phone 7 Series mobile OS. Filed in September 2008, this application describes a “contiguous background” that extends beyond the dimensions of the screen (either vertically or horizontally, but not both) with anchored “mixed-media” elements being littered atop it — all of which is to be served on a “media-playing device.” That should sound pretty familiar, given that it’s the central navigational concept of both Windows Phone 7 and the Zune HD, and as such it makes a lot of sense for Microsoft to seek to legally protect its uniqueness. Before you start wondering about potential conflicts with other UIs, take note that this requires a continuous graphical background rather than a tiled or repeating image, plus space-orientating graphical elements, which should make it sufficiently nuanced to avoid any more patently unnecessary squabbles should Microsoft’s claims be validated by the USPTO.
Edited 2010-04-02 03:04 UTC
Sounds like the virtual desktop option in XFree86/X.org to make it seem that your desktop extends beyond the boundary of your monitor.
I think prior art may take this one down.
i find MS’s response to patents funny, they don’t think it should apply to them unless they are the ones submitting a patent. and some of their recent patents seem to sometime be an exact clone of what open source has already done as mentioned up and the ‘sudo’ functionality from last year. yet they somehow claim it’s slightly different.