Post #22: Apple’s Offline iTunes Purchases Patent

On Tuesday, April 9^th, Apple was granted a patent for “a system permitting iTunes purchases using offline credits, according to the 2010 filing.” I would not consider this patent as an innovation, but more like an improved way of making more money. At least that’s what I suspect the whole idea got started. It certainly would also benefit the users to purchase music that they would like to listen to when there is no internet available. I also agree that the system will increase the sales of iTunes. I think this patent is considered as a good business idea rather than an innovated technical idea. It would be interested to see how  
Apple is going to adapt this new system to the iTunes, and how it affects the iTunes’ sales. 

For more information, visit: http://www.idownloadblog.com/2013/04/09/offline-itunes-apple/

Post #21: Apple’s Tablet-Laptop Hybrid Patent

On Tuesday, April 9^th, Apple finally revealed to public its vision of a “hybrid device that combines a touchscreen tablet and a notebook computer.” One interesting feature is that the users can charge the hybrid device wirelessly when the device’s base and display are detached. I thought it is incredible. 

I wonder if when you detach and reattach the base and display, the data will be saved in the display, and simultaneously back up on the base device when attach. It will be really cool to see the hybrid device in the market. I bet a lot of Apple’s fans are looking for this hybrid tablet-laptop. Hopefully the device has more feature of a laptop. I wonder if the device is heavy or light. I feel like most people choose a tablet is because they are light, smaller than regular laptop, and easy to carry around. For people who shop for the laptop, they are looking for a device that can handle more work, and have more features compared to a tablet. I wonder how the hybrid tablet-laptop will affect the markets for just tablet and laptops. It will be interesting to see how the other companies are going to adapt to this new vision of a tablet-laptop hybrid, and how the hybrid will affect the market.

For more information, visit: http://bgr.com/2013/04/09/apple-tablet-laptop-hybrid-patent-416882/

Post #20: German Court Denied Apple’s Slide-to-Unlock Patent

On Thursday, April 4^th, Mueller posted on Foss Patents blog that the Germany’s Federal Patent Court “ruled that all claims of EP1964022 on ‘unlocking a device by performing gestures on an unlock image’ are invalid as granted.” Apparently the slide-to-unlock gesture has “a visual representation was not deemed to constitute a technical innovation” in Europe. It is very different from the U.S. patent law, where “everything under the Sun Made by Man is patentable as long as it is new and inventive. It makes me wonder that a lot of innovations are biased from subjective point of view. What exactly is the universal standard for new technology?  It seems like the European judge the innovation based on very technical point of view, rather than considering broad aspect of designs to be patentable. I feel like the day where when there is a unified universal patent court is still very far away. People will have different standard on whether the innovation is really patentable or not.  

For more information, visit: http://www.fosspatents.com/2013/04/apples-slide-to-unlock-patent.html