Microsoft Patents Clicking Buttons
The US Patent Office really needs to be redesigned. Over the last few years it seems they have been giving the most obvious patents away. A patent is suppose to only be awarded for an idea that is both new and novel, but these days it seems you can patent almost anything, even if you didn’t invent it.
The computer mouse was invented by Douglas Engelbart in 1964 to be used along with one of his other inventions, the windows based graphical user interface. He was awarded a patent for his computer mouse, US Patent #3541541, which was both new and
novel, and was also an amazing invention at a time when all computing was done on text based interfaces or punch cards. Ironically, he was not given a patent on his windows based interface because the US Patent Office didn’t award patents for software at the time.
Now, jump 40 years into the future, and Microsoft has just been awarded a patent on clicking the mouse buttons. Specifically, on April 27, 2004 they were granted US Patent #6727830. Their patent covers having a device, like a computer, do different things depending on if a button is single clicked, held down for a certain amount of time, or double clicked. Douglas Engelbart’s original mouse had 3 buttons on it, obviously for clicking to get the computer to do things. If people have been double clicking mouse buttons since the 1960’s, then where is the new and novel idea? Even worse, will Microsoft use this patent to cause everyone who uses a mouse to pay them money? Will people using other operating systems, such as Apple Macs or Linux, not be allowed to use their mouse buttons?
Anyone who has used a computer mouse knows you click the buttons to do things. Double click on an icon to launch a program. Click and drag on a solitaire card to move it. Click and drag on some text to highlight it. All of these uses have been around since the invention of the mouse. Now, according to the US Patent Office, Microsoft owns these ideas. This is just one example of the patents office dropping the ball. They have given other obvious patents away, such as pop-up windows, one-click shopping, and paying with a credit card online.
Something needs to be done to create more oversight to the patent process and to encourage people with technical backgrounds to get involved in awarding patents. If something isn’t done soon, such simple patents will suffocate real innovation with lawsuits and royalty demands. In the meantime, I think I will try to patent the keyboard.
