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Why did apple not copy right this?

ste1164

ste1164

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jan 4, 2009
732
3
I don't know if apple were the first to release the multi touch system like pinch and zoom. But IF they were shouldn't apple have copyrighted the feature. It would help a bit with phone sales surely because they could have the best mobile web browsing experience. What are your thoughts on this.
 
Im sure they did, because when steve announced the iphone in 2007 he said that they had patented it and everything that goes with it?
 
I'm pretty sure they have patents on multitouch, as for individual gestures I'm not a lawyer but I would think that's hard to patent.
 
ste1164 said:
I don't know if apple were the first to release the multi touch system like pinch and zoom. But IF they were shouldn't apple have copyrighted the feature. It would help a bit with phone sales surely because they could have the best mobile web browsing experience. What are your thoughts on this.
Click to expand...

Please google before posting... it will save you time

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10150436-37.html
 
Because you can't copyright a feature or an idea.

You mean a patent, not copyright.

And Apple already have a number of patents around multi-touch - pretty much any they had any plausible chance of being granted as other people hadn't already generified those concepts.

Phazer
 
I thought apple patented multi touch. I wasn't sure because other phones use multi touch like the hero and pre. I guess the patent covers other areas.
 
ste1164 said:
I thought apple patented multi touch. I wasn't sure because other phones use multi touch like the hero and pre. I guess the patent covers other areas.
Click to expand...

I have a feeling the Palm and HTC have a different way of doing multi touch than the iPhone.. Kind of like the Blackberry Storm 2's "multi touch"
 
Maclver said:
I have a feeling the Palm and HTC have a different way of doing multi touch than the iPhone.. Kind of like the Blackberry Storm 2's "multi touch"
Click to expand...

Oh thank you for that information I didn't think about that that's cleared it up.
 
ste1164 said:
I don't know if apple were the first to release the multi touch system like pinch and zoom. But IF they were shouldn't apple have copyrighted the feature. It would help a bit with phone sales surely because they could have the best mobile web browsing experience. What are your thoughts on this.
Click to expand...

"Pinch" and "Zoom" are not things that can be protected by copyright. Copyright can be and is used to protect the actual code implementing these features; nobody in the world can use that code (without Apple's permission). Anyone is free to create their own implementation.

Apple could and probably has got patents for these features. This would prevent others from implementing the same thing. And here your optimism how positive this would be for Apple hits a brick wall:

Apple is not the only one with patents. Other companies have patents as well. And these patents (including the ones by Apple) or usually written in such a way that no developer can know that he or she is infringing on the patent. And the current state is that development of anything new is held up considerably by everyone having to work around everyone else's patents. Like Apple had to pay about $100 million for the menu system on the iPod.

Now if your competitors have patents, that is bad enough. But many patents are owned by companies whose only purpose is to blackmail successful companies. With the amount of patents granted, it is absolutely impossible to produce anything without infringing any patent and falling prey to a blackmailer.
 
ruinfx said:
this thread is full of so much misinformation it makes my head hurt
Click to expand...

Absolutely! :)

All companies protect their products by Patents, Copyrights or by Registering their Trademarks. If an other Company wishes to use a product so protected, there is nothing to stop it - providing it has agreed or signed the relevant licence to use and acknowledged it's use in their literature etc. Look at the multitude of legal acknowledgements by Apple for components used in the iPhone.

It's when a manufacturer uses a "protected" product without the owners permission, the trouble starts!
 
Apple does not have a patent on multitouch. Nor the pinch.

Multitouch dates back to at least 1982. Read more here from one of the more well known researchers in this field.

Pinch dates back to at least 1988, and was part of Sun's 1993 Starfire film. Read more here from Apple's original UI guru, a rather famous writer and designer.

The so-called "multitouch patent" that newcomers keep posting, was debunked as such almost immediately. It's just a patent for determining scrolling direction, and the number of fingers isn't important.

When Jobs bragged about hundreds of patents for the iPhone, he was seemingly including every patent for every chip that the iPhone used from other companies. Just a sales tactic.
 
kdarling said:
Apple does not have a patent on multitouch. Nor the pinch.
Click to expand...

Technically not true. They have several patents that deal with multitouch. But so do several other companies. Apple certainly wasn't the first to patent anything in the multitouch field.
 
Maclver said:
I have a feeling the Palm and HTC have a different way of doing multi touch than the iPhone.. Kind of like the Blackberry Storm 2's "multi touch"
Click to expand...

I am sure they got some licensing done with Apple..
 
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