Apple Gets Patent for Multi-Touch

Very broad language — taken at face value, Apple effectively owns the IP rights to multi-touch in the U.S. This sucks.

To be clear, my beef is with the U.S. patent system in that it allows something like this. Given the state of software patent law in the U.S., I don’t blame Apple or any other company for pursuing the broadest patent claims they can. And just because they hold an apparently broad patent doesn’t mean they’re going to use it as a weapon. Here’s to hoping they don’t.

★ Tuesday, 27 January 2009