Did You Know...
...that the inventor of the electric motor was a blacksmith named Thomas Davenport? Described as "a brilliantly unsuccessful inventor", Davenport invented the first rotary electric motor. In 1836 he headed out -- on foot -- from his Vermont home to file a patent application at the Patent Office in Washington, D.C. By the time he got there, he had squandered away his money and couldn't afford the $30 filing fee so he turned around and went home. When he later mailed in his application with money he'd raised, the Patent office was destroyed in a fire. He did finally get credit for his invention on Feb. 5, 1837.
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US Patent 7415666 - Method and system for navigating paginated content in page-based increments
US Patent Issued on August 19, 2008
Estimated Patent Expiration Date:
March 4, 2025Estimated Expiration Date is calculated based on simple USPTO term provisions. It does not account for terminal disclaimers, term adjustments, failure to pay maintenance fees, or other factors which might affect the term of a patent.
Estimated Patent Expiration Date:
March 4, 2025Estimated Expiration Date is calculated based on simple USPTO term provisions. It does not account for terminal disclaimers, term adjustments, failure to pay maintenance fees, or other factors which might affect the term of a patent.AbstractA method and system in a document viewer for scrolling a substantially exact increment in a document, such as one page, regardless of whether the zoom is such that some, all or one page is currently being viewed. In one implementation, pressing a Page Down or Page Up keyboard key/button allows a user to begin at any starting vertical location within a page, and navigate to that same location on the next or previous page. For example, if a user is viewing a page starting in a viewing area from the middle of that page and ending at the bottom, a Page Down command will cause the next page to be shown in the viewing area starting at the middle of the next page and ending at the bottom of the next page. Similar behavior occurs when there is more than one column of pages being displayed in a row. | InventorsAssigneeApplicationNo. 11073189 filed on 03/04/2005US Classes:715/784, Window scrolling715/785, Autoscroll715/786Scroll tool (e.g., scroll bar)Field of Search715/500, PRESENTATION PROCESSING OF DOCUMENT715/517, Layout715/525, Pagination715/526, Display processing715/784, Window scrolling715/785, Autoscroll715/786Scroll tool (e.g., scroll bar)ExaminersPrimary: Campbell, Joshua DAttorney, Agent or FirmUS Patent References5463725, Data processing system graphical user interface which emulates printed materialIssued on: 10/31/1995 Inventor: Henckel, et al.5764227, Document display apparatus for displaying document containing a plurality of pages. Issued on: 06/09/1998 Inventor: Ishimine6157381, Computer system, user interface component and method utilizing non-linear scroll bar Issued on: 12/05/2000 Inventor: Bates, et al.6972776Scrolling method using screen pointing device Issued on: 12/06/2005 Inventor: Davis, et al. International ClassesG06F 17/27G06F 17/21 |
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| by A.M. | on 08/26/2008 04:17 AM | Thank you! |
How can they describe this as an "invention" and still show a straight face? They must be laughing at the guys who let them get away with it. BTW some apps have been using this "exact point in page" schema for their paging (see ghostview for example) for ages. I guess a patent on the method for taking in more oxigen by "inhaling deeply" in order to maximize body performance while doing some phisical task such as running, or walking at a brisk pace, can't be that far off.
| by Anonymous | on 08/25/2008 11:49 PM | Thank you! |
That the patent was even granted speaks to a system so broken that it can't even recognize clear prior art, even when it is literally in the palm of their hand.
| by Anonymous | on 08/25/2008 09:03 PM | Thank you! |
funniest patent ever... Perhaps US patentstorm should have vote for funniest patents ever... I'm sure this one will be on top 10 :)
| by Anonymous | on 08/24/2008 10:47 PM | Thank you! |
This doesn't prove that the patent office is broken, but money can buy almost anything (maybe everything). Since DELL tried to patent 'cloud computing' and were rejected.
| by dmw | on 08/22/2008 04:23 PM | Thank you! |
and i'm going to patent a method for separating one word from the other on written/printed sentences. i shall call it ' ' (pronounced 'space')
| by Anonymous | on 08/22/2008 04:16 PM | Thank you! |
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! Its time to sit down and define what exactly SHOULD and SHOULD NOT be considered patentable. Why is all of this going on? PgUp/PgDn have been on keyboards since the beginning of time, and nobody has ever thought of something as ridiculous as patenting it. Whats next? Enter? Spacebar? The POWER BUTTON? Get real. I am so sick of MicroShaft and the idiotic behaviors that are always associated with them. Now, however, these so-called software patents are infringing on our right as computer users to use alternate operating systems by threatening the very thing that makes them appealing: F R E E D O M ! ! !
| by Anonymous | on 08/22/2008 03:16 PM | Thank you! |
Proof that the patent office is severely broken.
| by JimmyB | on 08/22/2008 02:17 PM | Thank you! |
OK, I'm going to patent AIR next.
| by Manuel | on 08/22/2008 02:17 PM | Thank you! |
Is this supposed to be real? Really, doesn't you m$ have something else to spend your valuable time and valuable resources on? This is insulting at the least: i'm thinking of registering the "method and system for using lowercase and uppercase letters on the very same keyboard", this one would be cooler than your since i would save a lot of space out of the desktop too. Keep up with the stupid work, Manuel - Italia