Re: patents

["Curtis C. Hovey" <sinzui cox net>]

On Fri, 2004-02-06 at 23:04, Jonathan Turner wrote:
> I noticed there was some talk on IRC about file browsing patents.  Is 
> there a list of patents that nautilus is trying to avoid somewhere? 
> (besides the obvious "at the patent office")

A list is a good idea, but where to put it?

PATENTS NAUTILUS AVOIDS

Spring loaded folders
The hover gesture opens folders during drag and drop operations.
US patent held by Apple

MPEG
Displaying MPEG encoded video and playing MP3 encoded audio.
many patents in many nations held by the MPEG consortium


PATENTS NAUTILUS MAY EMBRACE

Thumbnails
Setting the icon image to a scaled representation of the document.
US patent held by Apple
http://www.delphion.com/details?pn10=US05479602

Emblems
Create a composite icon from background and foreground icons
US patent held by Apple
http://www.delphion.com/details?&pn=US06100888__

Desktop themes
Altering the appearance and behavior of the GUI by selecting a
collection of objects.
US patent held by Apple
http://delphion.com/details?pn=US06188399__


PATENTS EMBRACED BY GNOME DESKTOP

Taskbar
The taskbar provides status information about the running applications
and services.
US patent held by Microsoft
http://www.delphion.com/details?pn=US05757371__
http://www.delphion.com/details?pn=US05920316__

Dock/launcher
An area of the desktop reserved for icons representing applications.
US patent held by NeXT (Apple)
http://www.delphion.com/details?pn10=US05146556



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