On Sat, 2010-08-07 at 16:55 -0600, Kevin Fenzi wrote:
Some folks were telling me that they thought that our
avant-window-navigator package might be infringing on:
US patent 7434177
http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?patentnumber=7,434,177
http://www.wikipatents.com/US-Patent-7434177/user-interface-for-providing...
Any thoughts on this? I don't see mention of it in the review for the
package:
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=238863
Does the patent only deal with the "Zoom" functionality?
Or is there just anything that lists a bunch of icons?
It looks like each of the independent claims refers to either
magification or movement of icons in response to the mouse. A simple
row of icons does not appear to be covered, and if it were, I am
guessing Active Desktop toolbars in Windows 95 would be prior art. But
IANAL.
--
Matt