Apple Now Owns the Page Turn

[Asrokhel]

The United States Patent and Trademark Office

If you want to know just how broken the patent system is, just look at patent D670,713, filed by Apple and approved this week by the United States Patent Office.

This design patent, titled, ?Display screen or portion thereof with animated graphical user interface,? gives Apple the exclusive rights to the page turn in an e-reader application.

Yes, that?s right. Apple now owns the page turn. You know, as when you turn a page with your hand. An ?interface? that has been around for hundreds of years in physical form. I swear I?ve seen similar animation in Disney or Warner Brothers cartoons.

(This is where readers are probably checking the URL of this article to make sure it?s The New York Times and not The Onion.)

Apple argued that its patented page turn was unique in that it had a special type of animation other page-turn applications had been unable to create.

The patent comes with three illustrations to explain how the page-turn algorithm works. In Figure 1, the corner of a page can be seen folding over. In Figure 2, the page is turned a little more. I?ll let you guess what Figure 3 shows.

Of course this isn?t the most seemingly obvious patent Apple has been awarded in recent years. The company has also been granted patents for an icon for music (which is a just a musical note), the glass staircase used in the company?s stores ? yes, stairs, that people walk up ? and for the packaging of its iPhone.

The patent to own the page turn was just one of 38 patents granted to Apple this week. Among the others there was a ?Skin tone aware color boost for cameras,? ?Location-based categorical information services? and a ?Consistent backup of electronic information.?

The page-turn patent was filed in December 2011, but was approved this week. It claims three inventors: Elizabeth Caroline Cranfill, Stephen Lemay and Mikio Inose.

Apple in the past has filed multiple suits against smartphone makers in the United States for infringement of other Apple patents.

http://bits.blogs.ny...-the-page-turn/

[Luis Mazza]

I hope they get screwed like in the UK. They gotta learn this.

[123456789A]

lol I always hated that page curling stuff anyway. I'll stick to Windows Phone.

[Draconian Guppy]

lol I always hated that page curling stuff anyway. I'll stick to Windows Phone.

+1 Fake page turning just adds 1-2 seconds worth of nothing.

[+Nik Louch Subscriber²]

Skeuomorphic design stands in the way of good UI. The number of times my old boss wanted our catalogue online (on our ecommerce site - searchable, well laid out, easy to browse) as a "like a catalogue, page turning way" was ridiculous. It stops natural online use!

[Asrokhel]

Metro News, and others, should have prior art on this. Check out Metro News:

http://reader.metronews.ca/digital_launch.aspx?id=ae45d194-e887-4f4e-bfc7-62a403de57df

[Lord Method Man]

Skeuomorphic design stands in the way of good UI. The number of times my old boss wanted our catalogue online (on our ecommerce site - searchable, well laid out, easy to browse) as a "like a catalogue, page turning way" was ridiculous. It stops natural online use!

Ugh, sounds awful.

[Growled Member]

Next up, Apple patents computers.

[+virtorio MVC]

On one hand, *sigh* for Apple being granted another ridiculous patent.

On the other, if this will make other designers think twice about using that effect then awesome, because it sucks.

[techbeck]

I wish Apple would learn how to compete. They never really had to before. For a while they dominated because they were the only thing of the kind at the time. Blackberry really was of no competition and Windows Mobile was pretty much stagnant. Then when Android came out, they had to compete but couldnt so now they resort to suing/patenting every little thing they can to make money instead of innovating which is what made Apple so successful.

But anyway, pretty much the same **** different day.

[ArialBlue]

When you can't beat them, sue them.

[remixedcat]

what about those animated children's storybooks???? is apple gonna sue the companies that make those??

[123456789A]

what about those animated children's storybooks???? is apple gonna sue the companies that make those??

What about the books that came with an audio cassette. They haven't patented "turn the page when you hear the chime" yet!

[remixedcat]

What about the books that came with an audio cassette. They haven't patented "turn the page when you hear the chime" yet!

eeyup those are safe.

[Rigby]

Something really needs to be done about the patent system, it has gone far beyond a joke now.

[Pupik]

Is it still legal to turn pages in actual books?

[Detection]

I used to have an Android reader app similar to Kindle app that turned pages like that, ages ago, I've looked for it since and can't find it, I was pretty sure it was Aldiko app, but unless it was an earlier build it doesn't do it either

[techbeck]

what about those animated children's storybooks???? is apple gonna sue the companies that make those??

Depends how much money the children's books are making.

[Richteralan]

+1 Fake page turning just adds 1-2 seconds worth of nothing.

Actually that is not really the point but anyway..

[vcfan]

I despise everything apple, but your post title is misleading. its not a patent on page turn, its how the page turns. its not as ridiculous as some of you are making it seem. I imagine you are android/Samsung users.

from the patent:

The appearance of the animated images sequentially transitions between the images shown in FIGS. 1-3. The process or period in which one image transitions to another forms no part of the claimed design.

meaning they are patenting this particular animation,and not the process or period of the animation, meaning they are not patenting the actual page turn, just this particular animation that is in the drawings.

[Royalty]

Did apple not learn their lesson yet?!

[neufuse Veteran]

how the heck do they get patents on this stuff... there has been page turning by click and drag in programs since the 90's! I remember an old dos program that had a similar thing with an animated page turn as you dragged the mouse from right to left... sure now we do with a finger, but still the same darn thing!

+1 Fake page turning just adds 1-2 seconds worth of nothing.

a lot of those animations are just slow downs to get processing done behind the scenes that would normally look like a pause if you didn't throw an animation up in the UI thread while a background thread gets the next pages ready, or does something else...

[Glassed Silver]

Skeuomorphic design stands in the way of good UI. The number of times my old boss wanted our catalogue online (on our ecommerce site - searchable, well laid out, easy to browse) as a "like a catalogue, page turning way" was ridiculous. It stops natural online use!

Some people prefer reading books in an old-fashioned way with the benefits of digital technology.

When I read, there's not much that can get into my way, it's not like I want to shoot lasers at the pages or something.

I agree that skeumorphism is blocking stuff from evolving in some parts, however there's not too much that can be improved upon in iBooks in my book (*badum-tsssh*)

Glassed Silver:mac

[Growled Member]

Did apple not learn their lesson yet?!

Apparently not.

[Draconian Guppy]

how the heck do they get patents on this stuff... there has been page turning by click and drag in programs since the 90's! I remember an old dos program that had a similar thing with an animated page turn as you dragged the mouse from right to left... sure now we do with a finger, but still the same darn thing!

a lot of those animations are just slow downs to get processing done behind the scenes that would normally look like a pause if you didn't throw an animation up in the UI thread while a background thread gets the next pages ready, or does something else...

That makes sense. But still, let's not kid ourselves, with the processing technology/power of cellphones all pdfs and epubs are already pre-rendered when opened anyway. I got understand how other people do like playing with page flips though.