Breaking News

Transcend's New ESD420 Portable SSD Offers MagSafe Compatibility and Pro-Level Performance G.SKILL Trident Z5 DDR5 Memory and WigiDash Receives European Hardware Awards 2025 Silicon Power Launches WP10 Magnetic Wireless Power Bank Razer Unveils the Ultra-Lightweight DeathAdder V4 Pro Sony launches a high-resolution shotgun microphone with superior sound quality and compact design.

logo

  • Share Us
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
  • Home
  • Home
  • News
  • Reviews
  • Essays
  • Forum
  • Legacy
  • About
    • Submit News

    • Contact Us
    • Privacy

    • Promotion
    • Advertise

    • RSS Feed
    • Site Map

Search form

Apple is trying to patent the interface for its iPod music player

Apple is trying to patent the interface for its iPod music player

General Interest Mar 30,2004 0

In its patent application 20040055446, published on Thursday, Apple describes a graphical user interface "and methods of use thereof in a multimedia player". The patent application refers to a hierarchically ordered graphical user interface and lists Apple chief executive Steve Jobs, Jeffrey L. Robbin and Timothy Wasko as inventors. Jeff Robbin was the primary author of SoundJam, the MP3 player which Apple bought the rights to in early 2000 as it sought to make up for lost ground in digital music after it underestimated demand for CD-RW drives. Robbin moved to Apple with the acquisition, where he later took a lead role on iTunes. Tim Wasko worked with Steve Jobs at NeXT before moving back to Apple after Jobs took up the post of iCEO (and later CEO).

This is not the first time Apple has tried to stop others from copying its interfaces.

In the late 1980s, Apple agreed to license parts of the user interface that appeared in the Lisa and Macintosh computers to Microsoft, which was then working on Windows 1.0. But as Microsoft added more features in Windows 2.0 and later in 3.0, Apple in 1988 filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Microsoft and HP (which at the time was working on an Apple-like skin for Windows called NewWave) to stop them using elements that it used in its Lisa and Macintosh platforms. Apple lost all its claims, except those that related to the trash can icon and file folder icons in HP's long-since abandoned NewWave. An appeal by Apple to the US Supreme Court was later denied.

Critics at the time suggested that Apple was attempting to gain all intellectual property rights over the desktop metaphor for computer interfaces. That case was further complicated when Xerox, which is widely held to have invented the graphical user interface, filed its own lawsuit against Apple saying that it held all copyrights over graphical user interfaces.

Apple appears to have learnt from its mistake in relying on copyright law, and is now turning to patent law to protect its user interfaces. "Patents offer stronger protection than copyright," said Struan Robertson, associate solicitor at law firm Masons. "If what you have done can covered by a patent you are well advised to get the patent. But Apple will still have copyright rights over the interface and so could still assert those in any action."

Tags: Apple
Previous Post
Gigabyte teams up with Foxconn to counter Asustek
Next Post
Sony DVP-NS330 desktop player review

Related Posts

  • Apple unveils Mac Studio featuring M4 Max and new M3 Ultra

  • Apple introduces iPad Air with powerful M3 chip and new Magic Keyboard

  • Apple debuts iPhone 16e

  • Apple introduces M4 Pro and M4 Max and new MacBook Pro

  • Apple unveils the new iMac with M4, supercharged by Apple Intelligence and available in fresh colors

  • Apple introduces powerful new iPad mini built for Apple Intelligence

  • Apple expands Self Service Repair Diagnostics support to Europe

  • Canon developing new RF-S 7.8mm F4 STM DUAL lens for EOS R7 camera for recording spatial video for Apple Vision Pro

Latest News

Transcend's New ESD420 Portable SSD Offers MagSafe Compatibility and Pro-Level Performance
PC components

Transcend's New ESD420 Portable SSD Offers MagSafe Compatibility and Pro-Level Performance

G.SKILL Trident Z5 DDR5 Memory and WigiDash Receives European Hardware Awards 2025
Enterprise & IT

G.SKILL Trident Z5 DDR5 Memory and WigiDash Receives European Hardware Awards 2025

Silicon Power Launches WP10 Magnetic Wireless Power Bank
Consumer Electronics

Silicon Power Launches WP10 Magnetic Wireless Power Bank

Razer Unveils the Ultra-Lightweight DeathAdder V4 Pro
PC components

Razer Unveils the Ultra-Lightweight DeathAdder V4 Pro

Sony launches a high-resolution shotgun microphone with superior sound quality and compact design.
Cameras

Sony launches a high-resolution shotgun microphone with superior sound quality and compact design.

Popular Reviews

be quiet! Light Loop 360mm

be quiet! Light Loop 360mm

be quiet! Dark Mount Keyboard

be quiet! Dark Mount Keyboard

be quiet! Light Mount Keyboard

be quiet! Light Mount Keyboard

Noctua NH-D15 G2

Noctua NH-D15 G2

Soundpeats Pop Clip

Soundpeats Pop Clip

be quiet! Light Base 600 LX

be quiet! Light Base 600 LX

Crucial T705 2TB NVME White

Crucial T705 2TB NVME White

be quiet! Pure Base 501

be quiet! Pure Base 501

Main menu

  • Home
  • News
  • Reviews
  • Essays
  • Forum
  • Legacy
  • About
    • Submit News

    • Contact Us
    • Privacy

    • Promotion
    • Advertise

    • RSS Feed
    • Site Map
  • About
  • Privacy
  • Contact Us
  • Promotional Opportunities @ CdrInfo.com
  • Advertise on out site
  • Submit your News to our site
  • RSS Feed