Let me play devil's advocate for a minute...

Posted Feb 4, 2009 2:28 UTC (Wed) by DonDiego (guest, #24141)
In reply to: Let me play devil's advocate for a minute... by mattdm
Parent article: Apple's touch-screen patent

1) Has anybody seen FingerWorks keyboards in action? They did all of this and more many years ago. They have used multitouch gestures many years before Apple. Apple bought the company, now they use the same technology. So Apple invented this? I don't think so...

2) The 20 year term is not an implementation detail. If you look at things like the TRIPS agreement, patents can never last less than 20 years, unless major changes are undertaken in the judicial system and international treaties. What you call an implementation detail is more like a rewrite from scratch.

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Let me play devil's advocate for a minute...

Posted Feb 12, 2009 20:28 UTC (Thu) by ecloud (guest, #56624) [Link]

Did you not know that Apple bought FingerWorks? Hmm wonder why they did that...

For some reason the touch controller chip is made by Broadcom. But as far as I know, Apple is the only one who buys the chip. It would seem there must have been some exclusive agreement. But I would think it should expire eventually since that's in Broadcom's best interest... they would like to sell such a hot chip to every cell phone mfgr.