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A comment on Apple deals massive patent blow to HTC, Android in serious trouble. Parent comment

Re:Apple deals massive patent blow to HTC, Android in seriou... by GHFigs on Monday July 18, 2011 @04:35PM (#2778107)
used this particular patent to get the idea or work out how to implement it

A patent protects the invention, not the text of the patent. The more realistic question is whether HTC's implementation was worked out by looking at how the feature works on iOS.

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Re:Apple deals massive patent blow to HTC, Android in seriou... by fpgeek on Tuesday July 19, 2011 @12:46AM (#2779647)
I'd bet it wasn't. I saw this sort of thing shown off as one of the advantages of Android's Intent system (e.g. highlighting a URL or phone number in a note-taking app) at a developer event months before the G1's release.

So far as I understand, iOS doesn't have the same sort of Intent architecture, so it seems unlikely that that Google's implementation drew any inspiration from iOS (especially as the same sort of thing has been done in web browsers for years to the point where a browser might be prior art).

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