Apple patents OS X Dock

[p858snake]

Apple patents OS X Dock

Apple has patented the OS X Dock, nearly a decade after the operating system made its public debut with a new slant on the taskbar.

The late arrival isn't due to a lack of initiative, however. Apple applied for the patent December 20, 1999, and it was approved by the US Patent Office only yesterday.

Apple summarizes the Dock as a "user interface for providing consolidation and access." The patent (available here) puts a particular focus on the Dock's ability to magnify icons to a predetermined size when the cursor is near, the user's ability to rearrange icons, and the way it overlaps the desktop and active windows. Other touches such as indicating which applications are running, label tiles appearing on mouse-over, and the ability to drag and drop files into applications on the Dock are also described.

The patent credits inventors Steve Jobs, Bas Ording, and Donald Lindsay.

Apple has regarded the Dock as the focus of OS X's user interface from the beginning. There can be little doubt Cupertino is happy to have its hands on the legal rights.

The big question here is: What's next?

Historically, Apple hasn't exactly been shy about pursuing legal action against those it considers infringing on its patent portfolio. This could be bad news for imitators such as ObjectDock, RocketDock, Avant Windows Navigator, and others.

An Apple spokesperson wasn't immediately available for comment. We'll just have to put our ears to the ground and listen for war drums sounding from Cupertino.

Source: The Register

Link: United States Patent - 7434177

I thought it was a bit strange when i saw it was from the register but i quickly read the patent link and it looks real.

[Japlabot]

So all the frivolous patents can get in at a drop of a hat, but Apple has to wait 8 years for something that actually is unique. Sucks for all the imitators though - here come the lawyers - A shame too because they have been available for so long and they are well established.

[Gundamdriver]

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/docks-the-6-b...indows-taskbar/

So the applications listed in above webpage has an end?

[Brian M. Veteran]

AFAIK, while a patent is still pending it isn't protected - so any companies that made docks before the patent was approved should be fine (You can't allow somebody to do something, and then stop them doing so 8 years later).

[Xerxes]

So what does this mean for all those Dock clone programs floating around? is Apple gonna go shut them all down now? well I'm not gonna get a Mac just cause it's the only OS allowed to have a dock. Apple can dream on, on that one :p

[Minifig]

Time to download and keep a backup of Rocketdock on my PC. :)

[Scirwode]

Time to download and keep a backup of Rocketdock on my PC. :)

I already have :p .

Scirwode

[Minifig]

I already have :p .

Scirwode

Good.. if I ever format.. I know who to come to for a backup of the backup. :)

[DrunknMunky Veteran]

Time to download and keep a backup of Rocketdock on my PC. :)

My thoughts exactly :laugh:

Although I think I have one on backup already for when I do formats :p

[Alexandre.]

Does this mean that good programs like Objectdock and Rocketdock are coming to an end. They shouldn't as they have 10x more features than the OS X dock.

[tsupersonic]

I saw the first use of a dock in IBM's OS/2, which goes beyond OS X by many many years

[SMELTN]

oh god.. backuping up rocketdock and all my icons, like everyone else

[giga Veteran]

I saw the first use of a dock in IBM's OS/2, which goes beyond OS X by many many years

Apple didn't pioneer the original concept of the icon application launcher, but that's not the main points that the patent outlines. (it outlines more of what the Dock can do today, apart from launching applications)

OS X's dock stems originally from Steve Jobs' nextsep OS.

[wst50]

If the dock clones are deemed illegal then, will the EULA still count? *registers docktorrent.com* :p

[Quillz]

So all the frivolous patents can get in at a drop of a hat, but Apple has to wait 8 years for something that actually is unique. Sucks for all the imitators though - here come the lawyers - A shame too because they have been available for so long and they are well established.

Except the OS X Dock isn't unique at all. RISC OS back in 1987 had it, as well as NeXTstep from 1989.

[giga Veteran]

Except the OS X Dock isn't unique at all. RISC OS back in 1987 had it, as well as NeXTstep from 1989.

RISC OS had an icon bar which was similar to nextstep's dock. OS X's dock has done quite a lot more than just application launching compared to the 1980s OSes--the patent highlights all of this.

Apple isn't just patenting the idea of application launching from icons.

[Eric Veteran]

Doesn't sound enforceable to me. The patent description is too vague and there is prior art for almost every point in it.

The basic rule is you can't patent an idea, only your implementation of it. (Your invention.)

Otherwise there would only be one car company, one toothpaste company, etc.

[S.MULLA]

so when Y'z dock was shut down by Apple, it wasn't right for them to do so?

[PaulCabby]

ooh what about the... Dell Dock :D

[the evn show]

Except the OS X Dock isn't unique at all. RISC OS back in 1987 had it, as well as NeXTstep from 1989.

Apple bought NeXT and all their inventions & technology (some of which lives on in Mac OS X).

Doesn't sound enforceable to me. The patent description is too vague and there is prior art for almost every point in it.

The earliest mention of NeXTStep that I can recall was 1986: a year after Steve Jobs founded the company and ~2 years before the first version was publicly available in 1988.

Can anybody think of something similar prior to 1985 (the year NeXT was founded)?

I think it's pretty reasonable that apple owns the 'invention' of the Dock as described in the patent. The fact that on the surface it appears to be legitimate (not patenting something like "display of a items a person will purchase as a list") shows how dangerous even valid software patents can be. It's a great example of why America desperately needs patent reform, especially when it comes to software. How on earth does this help further sciences and the useful arts? It doesn't.

[giga Veteran]

Doesn't sound enforceable to me. The patent description is too vague and there is prior art for almost every point in it.

The basic rule is you can't patent an idea, only your implementation of it. (Your invention.)

Otherwise there would only be one car company, one toothpaste company, etc.

Hit the nail on the head.

Glancing more over on the patent, Apple isn't patenting the idea of the Dock, but their implementation in scaling and flexibility in the OS X dock.

SUMMARY

According to exemplary embodiments of the present invention, these and other drawbacks and difficulties of conventional GUIs are overcome by providing a simple, consolidated and easily extensible facility for handling, for example, frequently used objects. For example, user interfaces according to the present invention provide a tool (referred to herein as the "userbar") which consolidates features including: launching and managing running applications; opening and managing documents and their associated windows; accessing control strip functionality; navigation to all types of uniform resource locators (URLs); and status and notification on running processes.

As mentioned above, existing tools of this type, such as taskbars and docks, are constrained in one or more of at least two ways: having a rigidly structured layout and being limited in the number of objects that they can represent in the available screen space. With respect to layout, the userbar according to the present invention is designed so that the organization of the userbar is in the hands of the user. For example, the tiles that represent the individual items in the userbar can be reorganized at will. There is virtually no structure enforced on the user, with the exception of two "bookends" which define boundaries of the facility.

With respect to screen space, the userbar according to the present invention provides a method for scaling the entire contents of the object handling facility such that literally upwards of fifty objects (or more) can be accommodated in a single, visible structure. As the objects handled by the userbar become rather small, e.g., due to the size set by the user or due to a large number of objects being added thereto, it naturally becomes more difficult to distinguish between different tiles. Accordingly, exemplary embodiments of the present invention provide a magnification effect, also referred to herein as a fisheye effect, for browsing the scaled contents of the userbar. This mechanism allows specified contents of the userbar, in particular minimized windows, to be presented at a larger size and in greater detail and legibility than other objects in the userbar. This feature permits, among other things, the individual tiles of the tool to retain their legibility and prevents the user interaction with the tool from being compromised by the scaled contents.

[Eric Veteran]

Hit the nail on the head.

Glancing more over on the patent, Apple isn't patenting the idea of the Dock, but their implementation in scaling and flexibility in the OS X dock.

If you look at the section about magnifying the dock icons they even specify the formula for the magnification degree. This patent will prevent people from copying the Mac dock exactly but it won't be usable to shut down other docks just because they exist.

The issue I could see with the part you highlighted in bold is prior art. The behavior of making room for large numbers of items has been available in the Windows taskbar via grouping since before OSX came out.Shrinking the dock icons and magnifying on mouse-over avoids that, but if they bunch up the icons for all GarageBand documents that are open they run afoul of Microsoft's methodology if they've patented it.

[wst50]

So basically the patent is symbolic?

[giga Veteran]

If you look at the section about magnifying the dock icons they even specify the formula for the magnification degree. This patent will prevent people from copying the Mac dock exactly but it won't be usable to shut down other docks just because they exist.

The issue I could see with the part you highlighted in bold is prior art. The behavior of making room for large numbers of items has been available in the Windows taskbar via grouping since before OSX came out.Shrinking the dock icons and magnifying on mouse-over avoids that, but if they bunch up the icons for all GarageBand documents that are open they run afoul of Microsoft's methodology if they've patented it.

The idea of scaling is nothing new, but the implementation in OS X's dock is: There is no left/right scaling for the size of the tiles in the taskbar. It also doesn't magnify when moused over. The dock doesn't group minimized objects like the Windows taskbar though, so I think they're free from any MS patents.

Describing previous docks or taskbars:

As mentioned above, existing tools of this type, such as taskbars and docks, are constrained in one or more of at least two ways: having a rigidly structured layout and being limited in the number of objects that they can represent in the available screen space

Describing OS X's dock:

With respect to layout, the userbar according to the present invention is designed so that the organization of the userbar is in the hands of the user. For example, the tiles that represent the individual items in the userbar can be reorganized at will. There is virtually no structure enforced on the user, with the exception of two "bookends" which define boundaries of the facility.

With respect to screen space, the userbar according to the present invention provides a method for scaling the entire contents of the object handling facility such that literally upwards of fifty objects (or more) can be accommodated in a single, visible structure. As the objects handled by the userbar become rather small, e.g., due to the size set by the user or due to a large number of objects being added thereto, it naturally becomes more difficult to distinguish between different tiles. Accordingly, exemplary embodiments of the present invention provide a magnification effect, also referred to herein as a fisheye effect, for browsing the scaled contents of the userbar. This mechanism allows specified contents of the userbar, in particular minimized windows, to be presented at a larger size and in greater detail and legibility than other objects in the userbar. This feature permits, among other things, the individual tiles of the tool to retain their legibility and prevents the user interaction with the tool from being compromised by the scaled contents

[Dc'1]

It's a bit late is it not :/ when a good handful of people are already using docks :p I wont be getting rid of it anytime soon :)