Interesting People mailing list archives
Re: MSFT patents "PageUp/PageDown" function
From: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Wed, 27 Aug 2008 18:45:11 -0400
Begin forwarded message: From: Richard Pauli <rpauli () speakeasy net> Date: August 27, 2008 5:57:54 PM EDT To: dave () farber net Subject: Re: [IP] Re: MSFT patents "PageUp/PageDown" function Dave, My patent story for IP:I had the misfortune of inventing something while I worked at Microsoft. I say worked "at Microsoft" instead of "for Microsoft" since I worked there for years as a permatemp contractor.
Everyone should know that any invention you patent is owned by your employer (if they want it) - even if you invent a potato peeler while working for a company building airplanes. And since I worked as a contractor this meant my contract agency employer had the rights to my invention. Admittedly this is still an untested, very grey area . Microsoft got very mad when I refused to turn it over to them...even though it was invented completely outside of their world and unrelated to their products. ( http://www.sundialsetup.com )
I offered them my invention quid pro quo full time employment at Microsoft, instead they offered either to take it completely or to hold the door for my swift and permanent exit from their company. Sigh. I thought that quite rude and not very smart for any company that needs new ideas to do that. And perhaps, not very smart of me for pushing the issue.
Too bad for me now, because Microsoft has grown to be the dominant employer in this area - and I have lost them forever - and too bad for them because I had lots more ideas and energy to offer and they lost that too. I suspect there are many more stories like mine.
Richard Pauli Seattle, Wa http://iThumb.org latest idea for Trusted Ridesharing At 04:31 PM 8/27/2008 -0400, David Farber wrote:
Begin forwarded message: From: "Ronald J Riley \(RJR-com\)" <rjr () rjriley com> Date: August 27, 2008 2:48:16 PM EDT To: <dave () farber net> Subject: RE: [IP] MSFT patents "PageUp/PageDown" function"....think this ranks up there with IBM getting the "paper or plastic?"patent reported last week. --rf" It is important to recognize that as large companies age they become incapable of producing significant inventions. Most significant inventions come from independent and academic inventors. They generally compensate for this by filling ever larger qualities of ever more insignificant or incremental inventions. It is quantity over quality. They do this in the vain hope that the shear quality will be a useful weapon against those who produce breakthrough inventions. It is not an effective tactic and that is why those larger aging but not yet fully mature companies formed a trade association known as the Coalition for Patent Fairness (aka the Piracy Coalition). The independent inventor community has been handing out attitude adjustments to Piracy Coalition members for some time. That is why they are howling for Patent Deform and whining about trolls. Ronald J. Riley, Speaking only on my own behalf. Affiliations: President - www.PIAUSA.org - RJR at PIAUSA.org Executive Director - www.InventorEd.org - RJR at InvEd.org Senior Fellow - www.patentPolicy.org President - Alliance for American Innovation Caretaker of Intellectual Property Creators on behalf of deceased founder Paul Heckel Washington, DC Direct (202) 318-1595 - 9 am to 9 pm EST. -----Original Message----- From: David Farber [ mailto:dave () farber net] Sent: Friday, August 22, 2008 8:48 AM To: ip Subject: [IP] MSFT patents "PageUp/PageDown" function Begin forwarded message: From: Richard Forno <rforno () infowarrior org> Date: August 21, 2008 9:47:55 PM EDT To: Infowarrior List <infowarrior () attrition org> Cc: Dave Farber <dave () farber net> Subject: MSFT patents "PageUp/PageDown" function ....think this ranks up there with IBM getting the "paper or plastic?" patent reported last week. --rf United States Patent 7,415,666 Sellers , et al. August 19, 2008 Method and system for navigating paginated content in page-based increments Abstract A method and system in a document viewer for scrolling a substantially exact increment in a document, such as one page, regardless of whether the zoom is such that some, all or one page is currently being viewed. In one implementation, pressing a Page Down or Page Up keyboard key/ button allows a user to begin at any starting vertical location within a page, and navigate to that same location on the next or previous page. For example, if a user is viewing a page starting in a viewing area from the middle of that page and ending at the bottom, a Page Down command will cause the next page to be shown in the viewing area starting at the middle of the next page and ending at the bottom of the next page. Similar behavior occurs when there is more than one column of pages being displayed in a row. < - > http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO %2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=7,415,666.PN.&OS=PN/ 7,415,666&RS=PN/7,415,666 ------------------------------------------- Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/247/=now RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/247/ Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com ------------------------------------------- Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/247/=now RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/247/ Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com
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Current thread:
- MSFT patents "PageUp/PageDown" function David Farber (Aug 22)
- <Possible follow-ups>
- Re: MSFT patents "PageUp/PageDown" function David Farber (Aug 22)
- Re: MSFT patents "PageUp/PageDown" function David Farber (Aug 27)
- Re: MSFT patents "PageUp/PageDown" function David Farber (Aug 27)
- Re: MSFT patents "PageUp/PageDown" function David Farber (Aug 28)