Quote:
Originally Posted by Shaggy
No they're not. They're just plain obvious.
Software patents in general are ridiculous, but especially stupid stuff like this.
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There are somethings which should be patentable, like how the whole system works for mobiles, they do cost money to develop, things like how your mobile phone transfers calls and data between handset and base-station.
Yes functions of UI should not, and neither should too general designs, protecting apple which someone else has thrown away is ok, but not a black square...
There should be line somewhere, I would likely go with something like: If regular person(a coder) can make something functionally similar in short period of time it shouldn't be patentable. So things like double-click and off button isn't patentable under this. But much larger things should be.
Anyway the stuff which makes things run falls under category which companies anyway have to license, and it's fair developing somethings do cost a load of money.
Stoping certain things from being patented wouldn't hamper the innovation, companies still has to provide best possible user experience and features to sell, you can't realy hide those either as they appear to customer. Still techonology running on background is much harder to make and takes a lot longer.