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A comment on Can I Legally Use the “Fluent UI” or Ribbon Design?.

Re:Can I Legally Use the “Fluent UI” or Ribbon Design? by meuk on Wednesday February 28, 2018 @11:35AM (#16484136)
So Microsoft is a patent troll, just like Apple (who decided to sue Samsung for the 'slide to unlock'). On the bright side, I think most people don't like the 'ribbon' (I don't understand the difference with a normal tabbed UI anyway) pattern anyway.
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Re:Can I Legally Use the “Fluent UI” or Ribbon Design? by oaiey on Wednesday February 28, 2018 @11:37AM (#16484161)
Not a fan of patents at all, but is not a troll someone who does not invent and sell products? Both Microsoft does.

They are playing the hard game with patents, but IMHO not troll style.

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Re:Can I Legally Use the “Fluent UI” or Ribbon Design? by meuk on Wednesday February 28, 2018 @11:42AM (#16484207)
You're right, 'patent troll' is not accurate here, but I couldn't find a better word.
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Re:Can I Legally Use the “Fluent UI” or Ribbon Design? by mfoy_ on Wednesday February 28, 2018 @12:19PM (#16484657)
So you're just denigrating the entire concept of patents? O.K.
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Re:Can I Legally Use the “Fluent UI” or Ribbon Design? by meuk on Wednesday February 28, 2018 @01:33PM (#16485405)
Of patenting obvious things and aggresively defending them. Although I think you could make a strong case against the whole concept of a patent as well.
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Re:Can I Legally Use the “Fluent UI” or Ribbon Design? by mfoy_ on Wednesday February 28, 2018 @01:53PM (#16485602)
Microsoft's "Ribbon" thing is very distinctive, it's not "obvious"... although whether it's "good" is debatable.
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Re:Can I Legally Use the “Fluent UI” or Ribbon Design? by ovao on Wednesday February 28, 2018 @01:42PM (#16485476)
You admit that you don’t understand the difference between the ribbon UI and tabbed layouts, yet assert that the ribbon design is “obvious”?
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Re:Can I Legally Use the “Fluent UI” or Ribbon Design? by meuk on Wednesday February 28, 2018 @02:29PM (#16485946)
As far as I can see the 'ribbon' style is a tabbed layout which uses big buttons with pictures. So with the prior art of tabbed layout and of buttons with pictures, the ribbon style brings nothing new to the table.
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Re:Can I Legally Use the “Fluent UI” or Ribbon Design? by bostonpete on Wednesday February 28, 2018 @02:00PM (#16485682)
A ribbon UI essentially is a tabbed layout, isn't it?
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Re:Can I Legally Use the “Fluent UI” or Ribbon Design? by ovao on Wednesday February 28, 2018 @02:49PM (#16486144)
It is, essentially, with the addition of context-sensitive controls and elements. Or at least that's my very layman's interpretation of the patents.
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