The patent hasn't been issued, they just published the application. Big difference? Who knows, they start counting from the date it was filed but the number of patents declined has been going up lately which is good news.

20070123309 is a patent application, not an actual patent. While it often seems like we have 20 billion patents in the US, we're not quite there, yet.

Everything worth patenting has already been patented.

A patent application to rotate a screen 180 degrees.

How novel, would never have thought of that one...

J

... That they're gonna get on Nokia's arse after this because it so happens that Nokia made such a phone (although the purpose of the filp was to give the screen a landscape view for DVB-H)?

Typical of Sony bustids. Steal someone's idea, call it their own, and demand the other person cough up.

Atari did this already with their handheld called lynx.

the idea for the Lynx was that you could rotate the screen 180 degrees for equal playability for left and right handed persons.

What's the point of rotating the screen? Why not just rotate the whole phone? I have an SPV M600, and use landscape mode all the time without having to revert to patented mechanisms to make it landscape. Perhaps I should patent the method of holding the phone in your hand, and then rotating it through 90 degrees!

Jay,

"A patent application to rotate a screen 180 degrees."

Not necessarily, look a little closer and you might find the application is for a type of hinge that allows a data connection to be sustained in all positions.

A new "invention", if you will, rather than an idea for an invention.

That's how patents work, you see -- "things" not "thoughts".

I was hoping it was Sony getting its act together and making with a GP{S add on more true mobility and help. It one of the few with a decent battery life where it would actually work.