Apple applies for iOS 'Notification Center' patent

Red Storm

Lifer
Oct 2, 2005
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I'm just gonna wait for someone who knows this stuff to explain what exactly they are applying to patent, cause obviously it's not just "notification center".
 

zerocool84

Lifer
Nov 11, 2004
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And they'll probably get it and Apple fans will say Google copied Apple even though it was the other way around.
 

douglasb

Diamond Member
Apr 11, 2005
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How is this even something that is able to be patented? It seems like a fundamental requirement for a mobile OS.
 

PowerYoga

Diamond Member
Nov 6, 2001
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ah apple, stealing ideas and then patent them before the other guy does.

Although my bigger issue with this is patenting design concepts in general. This is not "technology" and our patent system is woefully out of date.
 

cheezy321

Diamond Member
Dec 31, 2003
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ah apple, stealing ideas and then patent them before the other guy does.

Although my bigger issue with this is patenting design concepts in general. This is not "technology" and our patent system is woefully out of date.

Actually this is the first time that Apple was not first to patent. Google patented this in 2009.
 

Yuriman

Diamond Member
Jun 25, 2004
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How is this even something that is able to be patented? It seems like a fundamental requirement for a mobile OS.

iOS didn't add this until late 2011. If I'm not mistaken, it was a feature that came with Android 1.0 back in 2008.
 

Kenmitch

Diamond Member
Oct 10, 1999
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My skills stop at this:

Google patent shows Oct 1, 2009 > In ref to Jan 30, 2008


Apple patent shows Jan 3, 2013 > In ref to June 5, 2011

I struggle reading patent greek but at first glance they look like similar patents. I'll let someone else analyze them.
 
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akugami

Diamond Member
Feb 14, 2005
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Cue the basement dweller outrage...

Pretty much this.

Samsung has patented, and sued Apple over stupid crap like emoticons. No one gives a flying nutsack cause they're not Apple.

Keep in mind that I can patent a specific implementation of something and it be perfectly legal even though it's not a new invention per se.
 

bearxor

Diamond Member
Jul 8, 2001
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At a glance, they are significantly different.

Google application seems to cover just a drop down shade and the actual notifications in the status bar.

Apple's covers the shade, the actual notifications in a different way than google and the interaction and grouping of notifications on a lock screen.

I suspect they'll both be granted. Doubt Google will use theirs at all, but I would suspect Apple to immediately file a claim on it against Samsung, because that's what you do when you have a legal battle like Apple and Samsung are having. You find anything and everything that might have a little bit to do with whatever you're filing about and tack it on in the hopes of burying the other side in procedure.

In my opinion, none of this should be covered by patent law. This seems to all fall squarely under copyright as 'forms of expression' of a notification system, not an original invention.
 

BoberFett

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
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Neither of these things, Google's nor Apple's notification bar, is an invention worthy of patent. RSS readers have been aggregating data from multiple sources for a long time. And dashboards have been doing it for decades. A notification bar is just a dashboard on a mobile device.

The patent system is broken.