One more reason to dislike software patents
It has been posted on Slashdot that Microsoft has been granted U.S. Patent No. 6,727,830 which claims the invention of a hardware button of a computational device which acts according to how long and how often it has been pressed.
It apprears to me as if there was a lot to discuss about here. First, Palm users might be reminded of the functionality of their power button, which switches on and off the display backlight when pressed for three seconds. Additionally, in Europe the level of invention (german “Erfindungshöhe”) might have been a little to low, even if it hadn’t been done before. Hopefully.
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