From Nick@bigfatpanda.fsnet.co.uk  Sun Oct 21 21:19:33 2001
From: Nick@bigfatpanda.fsnet.co.uk (Nick Fleming)
Date: Sun, 21 Oct 2001 21:19:33 +0100
Subject: [Patents] GUI patent war Adobe ./ Macromedia
References: <87itd98acz.fsf@querty.oas.a2e.de> <20011021184501.B1256@golem>
Message-ID: <002201c15a6d$b5633f40$b71a87d9@oemcomputer>

The wording for this thing was so  unclear I went to
adobe's website to look at the (badly) animated
examples and the FAQ page... 

http://www.adobe.com/adobefacts/faq.html

    Looks like all this patent covers is changing the 
order of tabbed sheets in a window under user control.

>From a users point of view, I don't like patents like this.
All they are doing as allowing the user to customise
the layout of the user interface at run time. Big deal,
we've had moveable toolbars, changing the colour of
windows and selecting the default system fonts and
countless other interface layout tools for decades.
Microsofts Grid control (as used in old stalwarts
like Access, Internet explorer and the 'find' tool') allows
the columns to be re-ordered by the user.

    Or to put it simply - re-ordering user interface 
components should *not* be patenable - its common
practice !

I cant see anything either non-obvious, novel or inventive
about their patent and I'm sure I am not alone in wondering
why this ever got issued .(The wording on the claim
was utter garbage in my opinion).

     All it will mean is that as the patenting of user interface
designs continues, users will be left with less and less
choice of how they interact with their pc's. I thought all this
was settled way back in the days of Borland vs Lotus..This should
be a particular concern for disabled and special needs groups,
who may rely on such user customisations in order to use software.
Surely there should be a law that protects the rights of people
to customise their computers user interface as they see fit ?

    I just want to end by saying I'm not associated with either
Adobe or Macromedia in any way - I'm more concerned with
my rights as a software engineer to design and implement an
effective and usable user interface rather than take sides in
a petty patent dispute - which should clearly be more about the
copyright infringements than patents. (IMHO).

Regards,

Nick Fleming.

p.s. Whats really suprising is the date the patent was filed..1994 ??
    I didn't know the EPO was granting software patents that far
back (i'm not sure sarcasm translates well - sorry :-) 




