MS patents the handheld 'click'

Andy Sullivan

WASHINGTON: Computer users with itchy trigger fingers take note: The next time you open a software program with two quick clicks on a handheld computer you may be engaging in a process patented by Microsoft Corp.

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on April 27 granted a patent for a "time based hardware button for application launch" in which a click of a button can start different programs if it is clicked once, twice or held down for several seconds.

That process is familiar to countless computer users who have double-clicked their way through Microsoft's Windows operating system, as well as anyone who's tried to set the time on a digital watch.

Mouse-wielding computer users need not worry, as the patent only applies to handheld computers that run Microsoft's PocketPC software -- specifically the method of bringing up different features depending on how many times a button is pressed.

But the application highlights shortcomings in the Patent and Trademark Office, where examiners short on time and resources are hard-pressed to root out earlier examples of similar technology, said San Francisco patent consultant Gregory Aharonian.

"Unless the examiner had a patent or journal article in front of them, it's going to be hard" to reject the application, he said. "The examiners need the pieces of paper. They're like the IRS."

The Federal Trade Commission last year said the PTO should not grant patents so readily, as those granted for obvious concepts, such as one granted in 1895 for putting a gasoline engine in a car, can impede progress by preventing competitors from improving on them.

PTO spokeswoman Brigid Quinn declined to comment about the patent but said anyone was free to challenge it.

"If people feel that the patent is either not novel or that it's obvious, they can send us the evidence and if indeed the prior art raises a question of patentability we will examine it," Quinn said.

Microsoft, which spends nearly $7 billion yearly on research, said it regularly patents technologies around the use of software and computers.

Aharonian said Microsoft has never filed a patent-violation suit to the best of his knowledge.

The company has been the target of patent suits, however. Privately held Eolas Technologies Inc. won a $520 million judgment last August after a jury determined that Microsoft had violated Eolas' patent when it designed its Internet Explorer browser to run mini-applications that allow Web users to fill out forms and use other interactive features.

Microsoft has appealed that decision and the PTO agreed to review the patent after the standard-setting World Wide Web Consortium challenged it.

(Additional reporting by Reed Stevenson in Seattle)

© Reuters