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A comment on Apple's New Pinch-To-Zoom Monopoly is Bad News. Parent comment

Re:Apple's New Pinch-To-Zoom Monopoly is Bad News by statictype on Tuesday August 28, 2012 @07:49AM (#4443172)
I believe the patent is for a specific implementation of identifying those intuitive gestures and generating corresponding user interface commands. That's what follows in the description of the algorithm and circuitry.
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Re:Apple's New Pinch-To-Zoom Monopoly is Bad News by ktizo on Tuesday August 28, 2012 @07:56AM (#4443188)
It isn't. Which is why it has this line in it -

[0046] It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory only and are not restrictive of the invention as claimed.

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Re:Apple's New Pinch-To-Zoom Monopoly is Bad News by roc on Tuesday August 28, 2012 @09:20AM (#4443502)
The only things that matter with regards to patents, are the claims.

That line, and the general and detailed descriptions can be ignored entirely.

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Re:Apple's New Pinch-To-Zoom Monopoly is Bad News by learc83 on Tuesday August 28, 2012 @09:30AM (#4443538)
The claims for the pinch-to-zoom patent are broad enough to cover pinch to zoom on any touchscreen.
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Re:Apple's New Pinch-To-Zoom Monopoly is Bad News by roc on Tuesday August 28, 2012 @09:48AM (#4443628)
The claims as-filed, sure. But the USPTO doesn't generally update the published application to match the current document (including changed and struck claims) during the process.

So it's entirely possible that wording didn't survive.

In any event, it's hardly fair to judge a system based on the snapshot of a submission from before it had even gone through that system yet.

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Re:Apple's New Pinch-To-Zoom Monopoly is Bad News by learc83 on Tuesday August 28, 2012 @10:23PM (#4446796)
You can easily read all of that in the public PAIR database, it's not hard to find.

Btw the wording did indeed survive, the patent as it stands is sufficiently broad to cover all pinch-to-zoom implementations on any kind of touchscreen.

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