Filed under: Apple Corporate, iPod Family
Apple loses 3-year iPod interface patent battle
After trying for almost three years to obtain a patent for the iPod's software interface, we've learned that Apple's application was rejected last month by the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). The patent application lists Steve Jobs and Apple VP Jeff Robbin as the two primary inventors.AppleInsider reports that "Standing in Apple’s way appears to be a prior filing by inventor John Platt, who submitted a patent application for a similar software design for a portable device in May of 2002 - just five months before Robbin submitted his claims on behalf of Apple." John Platt, by the way, is a Senior Researcher in the Knowledge Tools Group at a little company called Microsoft. His USPTO application describes a system that “generates playlists for a library collection of media items via selecting a plurality of seed items, at least one which is an undesirable seed item.” Yup... sure sound like the iPod to me!
The USPTO allows a 3 month period for Apple to appeal the final decision, so we might not have heard the end of this one yet.
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Alex said 4:41PM on 8-09-2005
typo first word
and does this mean apple can't use this interface anymore? or they just can't stop others from using it.
kinda a blow to apple, nothing seems to be going their way recently.
first they get rid of their trackpad supplier, and now they lose the ipods interface... wow.
Reply
James Donevan said 4:56PM on 8-09-2005
"so we might not have heard the end of this one yet"
... gee do ya think?
Reply
eleongonzales said 4:57PM on 8-09-2005
Yea this is definately not over yet.
Does the creation of the Mighty Mouse and the soon to be in house trackpad production equate to powerbooks and ibooks with 2 button trackpads? I doubt i would purchase a powerbook before the intel switch but i am curious how the mac community would feel about 2 button notebooks...
Reply
narco said 5:39PM on 8-09-2005
So if this John Platt dude works for Microsoft, could it also mean that all of his ideas are property of Microsoft? Could that also mean that Microsoft can sue Apple for using the interface? Man, what a heavy blow to Apple if that's the case.
Fishes,
narco.
Reply
Adrian said 6:11PM on 8-09-2005
Here's that guy's main page on the playlist techonology:
http://research.microsoft.com/~jplatt/abstracts/AutoDJ.html
And for the math geeks out there, check out the actual research paper, its pretty insane:
http://research.microsoft.com/~jplatt/autoDJ.pdf
Reply
Mr Yuk said 7:35PM on 8-09-2005
I think AppleInsider has jumped the gun here. Robbin & Jobs have several other patent applications pending with the USPTO: "Graphical user interface and methods of use thereof in a multimedia player" for example. IMO the key iPod patent is Patent Application number 20030095096 "Method and apparatus for use of rotational user input" filed May 22, 2003.
Abstract:
Improved approaches for users of computing devices to interact with graphical user interfaces are described. According to one aspect, a rotational user action supplied by a user at a user input device is transformed into linear action with respect to a graphical user interface. According to another aspect, a portion of an extended list of items is displayed by a graphical user interface and, through rotational user actions at a user input device, the portion of the list being displayed can be varied with welcomed ease of use. Although the type of computing device can vary, the improved approaches are particularly well-suited for use with a portable media player.
If that one falls it's time to buy those APPL puts in a big way.
Reply
db said 2:55PM on 8-10-2005
This article does not list the correct application serial number or 18 month publication number. All I have been able to find are applications 10/259,159 and 10/072,765 (go to portal.uspto.gov to see status info). 10/259,159 has a second non-final rejection issued. Also, don't look at final rejections as "final". You can respond to a final to make the application allowable, or if you respond and the Examiner respond with an Advisory Action you pay $790 and file a request for continued examination along with a response. You can also file an RCE responsive to the final office action. Anyway, be wary of patent information you see on blogs, I've noticed a lot of it is misinformed.
Reply
Victor Agreda, Jr. said 3:58PM on 8-10-2005
Begun, the clone wars have.
Reply