Re: Microsoft patent affect Fedora?

[Tom Lane <tgl@xxxxxxxxxx>]

>> A few days ago Microsoft was granted a patent[1] on the functionality of
>> page up and page down.

Did anyone RTFP?

http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1%3Cbr%20%3E%3C/a%3E%20&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=7,415,666.PN.&OS=PN/7,415%3Cbr%20/%3E%20,666&RS=PN/7,415,666

It looks to me that what is being claimed is one very specific formula
for calculating *where to move to* in response to a page up or page down
command.  Hardly a generic patent on the concept of page up/down.

Note how much detail is in claim 1.  The normal process for predatory
patents is to claim the moon, the sun, and the stars in claim 1, and
then somewhere down around claim 10 get down to something narrow enough
that it might survive a court challenge.  This patent might be
enforceable on claim 1 --- but by the same token it would be trivial to
dodge.  Just use a slightly different motion formula.

			regards, tom lane

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