Microsoft officially owns the double-click

[MisterMike]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1738&e=3&u=/zd/20040604/tc_zd/128834

[arnisador]

I read this. It's insane. Remember when peole used to joke that they owned the bits 0 and 1?

[theletch1]

Anyone else hear George Orwell's voice in the background while reading that?

[Elfan]

And the To-Do list

http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?patentnumber=6,748,582

[shesulsa]

...jeez...hmmm...let me look around my house to see what I can patent....

[OUMoose]

Shesulsa, make sure you send in your royalty payment to google then (or is it amazon, i forget), since you're "searching" for things to patent... :D

[theletch1]

Well, that does it. I'm gonna patent my own little self defense system and demand royalties everytime some one punches, kicks, chokes or other wise attacks/defends using any part of their body. :erg:

[TonyM.]

Well it could quite possibly be the most funtional thing they've ever invented, and like their memory hog program it's redundant.

[Dronak]

That's totally ridiculous. I'm almost sure that I've seen PDA programs designed to do this -- launch different programs using the same few hardware buttons depending on how they're clicked. I guess all those authors are going to be sued or forced to deleted their programs or something. Maybe I should go download as many of them as possible now in case I want to use them in the future. Sheesh. I'm almost amazed that they'd let someone patent something that's been in use (albeit in a slightly different medium) for a long time already.