Apple owns patent on most intuitive actions, report

Will make it difficult for any other company to make a product as easy to use as the iPad or iPhone


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Apple owns patents that will make it difficult for any other company to make a product as intuitive to use as the iPad or iPhone.

In a report, Seeking Alpha notes that patents owned by Apple that describe scrolling, rotating and scaling documents on a touch screen device are actions that are “bred into our DNA”, case in point being the fact that any child picking up an iPad knows instinctively how to use it.

“This seemingly inborn response is being bred into our DNA (kind of) and Apple is doing everything they can to make sure that many iterations of this technology are protected under the Apple IP umbrella,” notes the report.

Seeking Alpha suggests that the “pinch to zoom” patent owned by Apple is a navigational gesture that is “becoming almost universal” and as a result we can “expect much more patent litigation down the road”.

Comments received


CW said on Tue, 03 Jul 2012

What this will do eventually is cause patent offices to stop issuing patents on such a silly basis.

Mackly said on Wed, 04 Jul 2012

"What this will do eventually is cause patent offices to stop issuing patents on such a silly basis."

CW, we can only hope they would be so sensible - but these companies seem to have a lot of spare cash sloshing around.

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