Stupid Patent Of The Month: Microsoft’s Design Patent On A Slider

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Honestly, none of this stuff even makes me bat an eye anymore. With patents on rounded corners, 1-click shopping, slide-to-unlock and countless others, this doesn't surprise me in the least.

For the first time ever, this month’s Stupid Patent of the Month is being awarded to a design patent. Microsoft recently sued Corel for, among other things, infringing its patent on a slider, D554,140, claiming that Corel Home Office has infringed Microsoft’s design. The design patent, as detailed by Microsoft in its complaint, is titled “User Interface for a Portion of a Display Screen” and entitles
 
This is mainly for defensive purposes, Microsoft is not known to patents trolling. .
 
And it's "design" patents, which is definitely NOT the same kind of patents most folks generally associate the word "patent" with.
 
Dunamis said:
This is mainly for defensive purposes, Microsoft is not known to patents trolling. .
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Well I mean they are suing so.... The slider is like the home of the article... The entire claim is pretty horrendous and pathetic... Dangerous water ms is going in, as it works both ways.. Might take a while but,,😜 hey!
 
Uvaman said:
Well I mean they are suing so.... The slider is like the home of the article... The entire claim is pretty horrendous and pathetic... Dangerous water ms is going in, as it works both ways.. Might take a while but,,😜 hey!
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Like the joke...
 
Suing hoping that Corel, tiny in comparison, will settle legitimizing MS's patent claims
 
jpm100 said:
Suing hoping that Corel, tiny in comparison, will settle legitimizing MS's patent claims
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One thing I don't get... The claims boil down really to look and feel stuff, and yes menus being imitated... But doesn't ms like give out guidance about how to make software look an feel? I mean isn't that why w7 software can be counted on to have menus and style a certain way, and didn't,t they gave guidance again with w8 about making software with the new modern ui? I mean I used software in w7 "updated" with all the look and feel made for the w8 "experience" is this not something ms asks for and gives guidance or even tools for?
 
Uvaman said:
One thing I don't get... The claims boil down really to look and feel stuff, and yes menus being imitated... But doesn't ms like give out guidance about how to make software look an feel? I mean isn't that why w7 software can be counted on to have menus and style a certain way, and didn't,t they gave guidance again with w8 about making software with the new modern ui? I mean I used software in w7 "updated" with all the look and feel made for the w8 "experience" is this not something ms asks for and gives guidance or even tools for?
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They do it often, I wonder if they offered to help and correl ignored them.
 
Design patents are like trademarks. They are REALLY hard to accidentally infringe, are VERY difficult to enforce unless it's exactly the same, and are usually integral to brand identifiers, visually.
This ones doesn't seem all that stupid.
 
Uvaman said:
One thing I don't get... The claims boil down really to look and feel stuff, and yes menus being imitated... But doesn't ms like give out guidance about how to make software look an feel? I mean isn't that why w7 software can be counted on to have menus and style a certain way, and didn't,t they gave guidance again with w8 about making software with the new modern ui? I mean I used software in w7 "updated" with all the look and feel made for the w8 "experience" is this not something ms asks for and gives guidance or even tools for?
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After skimming the first portion of the actual complaint, it looks like the issue here is that the Corel software deliberately has an 'office'-like feel an goes out of their way to make it such. The Help guide in the software even has a section that reads "Simulating the Microsoft experience".

I do think that MS has grounds on this since Corel is using the MS look as a selling point; "it looks almost exactly like MS Office, why not buy our cheaper product?"
 
Modred189 said:
Design patents are like trademarks. They are REALLY hard to accidentally infringe, are VERY difficult to enforce unless it's exactly the same, and are usually integral to brand identifiers, visually.
This ones doesn't seem all that stupid.
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Not only that, but the "stupid" aspect of this patent is largely just a springboard to shoehorn in the EFF's hatred of the Apple v. Samsung damages award. They, of course, conveniently don't mention that the reason for those damages is because Congress intentionally amended the patent laws to make the damages for design patents much higher than the damages for utility patents.

35 U.S. Code § 289 - Additional remedy for infringement of design patent said:
Whoever during the term of a patent for a design, without license of the owner, (1) applies the patented design, or any colorable imitation thereof, to any article of manufacture for the purpose of sale, or (2) sells or exposes for sale any article of manufacture to which such design or colorable imitation has been applied shall be liable to the owner to the extent of his total profit, but not less than $250, recoverable in any United States district court having jurisdiction of the parties.
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The problem here is a Congress-problem, not a courts/Microsoft/patents-problem.

I like the EFF's privacy advocacy, but as usual, they don't know what they're talking about with patents.
 
Stevoman said:
Not only that, but the "stupid" aspect of this patent is largely just a springboard to shoehorn in the EFF's hatred of the Apple v. Samsung damages award. They, of course, conveniently don't mention that the reason for those damages is because Congress intentionally amended the patent laws to make the damages for design patents much higher than the damages for utility patents.



The problem here is a Congress-problem, not a courts/Microsoft/patents-problem.

I like the EFF's privacy advocacy, but as usual, they don't know what they're talking about with patents.
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Yeah but... Sliders , menu boxes, and help boxes are all over windows software, this is not an 'LV' design piece of leather or something along those lines.. This types of claims are weapons of mass destruction if awarded.. It will cut both ways eventually.
 
Sonicks said:
After skimming the first portion of the actual complaint, it looks like the issue here is that the Corel software deliberately has an 'office'-like feel an goes out of their way to make it such. The Help guide in the software even has a section that reads "Simulating the Microsoft experience".

I do think that MS has grounds on this since Corel is using the MS look as a selling point; "it looks almost exactly like MS Office, why not buy our cheaper product?"
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This been done in the past, with Windows like Linux and I think there is a Chinese ' office' that is basically office, but with none of the code ( this I am trying to remember from years ago so I might be confused).
 
Uvaman said:
Yeah but... Sliders , menu boxes, and help boxes are all over windows software, this is not an 'LV' design piece of leather or something along those lines.. This types of claims are weapons of mass destruction if awarded.. It will cut both ways eventually.
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This is not a patent on a slider. This is a patent on a slider that looks EXACTLY like this:
microsoft_slider.png

ANY change to that image means it doesn't infringe. So, a ball as the slider itself, or arrows on each side instead of balls. That kind of thing.

But, it looks like Corel did just that (or MS claims), and MS is not known for patent trolling, so chances are this is at least a decent claim.
 
Modred189 said:
This is not a patent on a slider. This is a patent on a slider that looks EXACTLY like this:
microsoft_slider.png

ANY change to that image means it doesn't infringe. So, a ball as the slider itself, or arrows on each side instead of balls. That kind of thing.

But, it looks like Corel did just that (or MS claims), and MS is not known for patent trolling, so chances are this is at least a decent claim.
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I guess I get that, but a lot of their parents are blank boxes.. So guess since Corel did not leave the boxes blank then ms will lose. I guess Corel,s slider does not have the line in the arrow, so ms should lose too.. Another patent is having the menus change when selecting an object that is being worked on. I doubt ms is the only one that does that.
 
Uvaman said:
I guess I get that, but a lot of their parents are blank boxes.. So guess since Corel did not leave the boxes blank then ms will lose. I guess Corel,s slider does not have the line in the arrow, so ms should lose too.. Another patent is having the menus change when selecting an object that is being worked on. I doubt ms is the only one that does that.
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Well, just because MS sued does not mean they will win. Again, MS is not really lawsuit-happy as much as others, so their cases usually tend to be more legitimate. That said, the second patent you mention:
Another patent is having the menus change when selecting an object that is being worked on.
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is a utility patent and is a completely different consideration/discussion. There, there are issues of equivalency, not to mention the impact of the recent Alice decision.
 
Modred189 said:
Design patents are like trademarks. They are REALLY hard to accidentally infringe, are VERY difficult to enforce unless it's exactly the same, and are usually integral to brand identifiers, visually.
This ones doesn't seem all that stupid.
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I can see that very well especially in fashion, and can see why the law would be forfeiting all profits, but this software 'design' patents look more like patents on white shoes with 5inch heels... I mean blank boxes with tabs.. Tabs?...
 
Modred189 said:
Page 35 as well.
This was sloppy work by Corel. They had their design guys copy MS Office products in a "MS Mode" without doing a quick IP search. Amateur hour over at corel.
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What's actually even more amazing is that Microsoft's Ribbon UI is something they give away with Visual Studio/.NET and will freely license to developers. That is, freely license for anything except...

There's only one limitation: if you are building a program which directly competes with Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, or Access (the Microsoft applications with the new UI), you can't obtain the royalty-free license.
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http://blogs.msdn.com/b/jensenh/arc...the-2007-microsoft-office-user-interface.aspx

Amateur hour indeed.
 
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