'We invented Windows 8 Tiles in the 1990s', says firm suing Microsoft
We couldn't get anyone to like them either
Customer Success Testimonial: Recovery is Everything
Microsoft had barely got Windows 8 out the door before it was slapped with a patent lawsuit related to the new OS.
Software and OS design tech firm SurfCast has filed a suit in Maine over Live Tiles, which it says it invented. The company has just four patents, but one of them, filed in 2000 and granted in 2004, deals with a "system and method for simultaneous display of multiple information sources".
Although Microsoft has been going on about Tiles since Windows Phone 7 became available two years ago, the launch of Windows 8, Windows Phone 8 and Surface fondleslabs have spurred the Surfcast to take legal action. Presumably, SurfCast didn't mind Redmond infringing on its patents when it was just Windows Phone 7, but a fully rounded lineup that looks like it could make some good money is the last straw.
Microsoft's Live Tiles sit on a phone (or nowadays a fondletop or desktop) start screen and update with real time information from websites, twitter, photos, email etc.
SurfCast's tiles, as described by its website, are "dynamically updating icons" that do pretty much the same thing.
"A Tile is different from an icon because it can be both selectable and live - containing refreshed content that provides a real-time or near-real-time view of the underlying information," the site says.
The company has complained to the court that not only has Microsoft infringed its tile patent, but it's also encouraging developers to do so by asking them to come up with tiles for their apps.
"We developed the concept of Tiles in the 1990s, which was ahead of its time," Ovid Santoro, CEO of SurfCast, said on the website. "Microsoft's Live Tiles are the centrepiece of its new operation systems and are covered by our patent."
Microsoft had not responded to a request for comment at the time of publication. ®
Regcast training : Hyper-V 3.0, VM high availability and disaster recovery
COMMENTS
Re: Really torn
"WP7 was all the rage"
I must have been having a shit during those 2 minutes and missed it
It is where the US patent system has completely screwed the pooch. Originally the idea was that somebody had an idea for something - such as a flying car - and someone thought of a way to do it. It was the way to do it, the invention, that was patentable.
Now the US seems willing to patent the idea regardless of the method, so if you think of a flying car but have no idea how to do it, and I invent the helicopter, you can stop me making it because you had the idea first.
As the rest of the world works around this epic IP fail, the US is slowly going to sink into irrelevance, because the idea for a product should not be patentable. If this silly company regurgitates the idea of mini-windows running applications that you can bring to the front by clicking on them, and Microsoft then finds a way to make it work taking into account multitasking, shared resources and all the rest of it, then they are the inventors.
I'm pretty sure the American Patent system is one of the signs of the apocalypse, and Europe's desire (and a few British MPs) to follow them is likely another.
IT infrastructure monitoring strategies
Agentless Backup is Not a Myth
Top 10 SIEM implementer’s checklist
Steps to Take Before Choosing a Business Continuity Partner
Enabling efficient data center monitoring
