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

Posted Feb 7, 2009 1:23 UTC (Sat) by giraffedata (guest, #1954)
In reply to: Let me play devil's advocate for a minute... by mattdm
Parent article: Apple's touch-screen patent

If Apple spent significant money inventing multitouch, I agree completely that anyone else who profits from the invention should pay Apple. Otherwise, we risk not having such inventions.

But I have a hard time believing the invention was costly. I'm sure Apple spent a fortune implementing it in a product, but that's the same money any copycat would have to spend. Actually determining that pinch gestures are a good way to do a UI was probably close to free.

Incidentally, this philosophy of significant investment is not present in current patent law, because patent law was not originally intended to protect investment. It was intended to encourage disclosure of the invention. So since there is no possible way for Apple to use multitouch while keeping it a secret, the original goals of patent law don't support any protection at all here.