Er.... Did the patent mentioned anything about how many seconds the button must not be pressed to activate certain functions before constituting a violation of the patent ??? And how about, devices that allow users to self-configure delays (in terms of seconds) to activate/ deactivate certain functions. Again, does it mean if users were to set the delays that coincide with those mentioned in the patent, the users are in violation ??? Hum.... This is really intriguing to say the least. "Antonio (Nino) Benci" wrote: Further to this silliness and as an example. [RANT ON] The now defunct Royal (Olivetti) DaVinci PDA had a time based button operation for activating the display backlight and/or turning the device off. A short press would turn the device off and a longer press would activate the LCD backlight. Nokia phones, from my memory the 5110 and 3215, have a main function button that both turns off the phone and or selects various profile options, dependent upon the length of time that the button is held. Now, if that can't be considered as prior art then i'll just throw my arms in the air and give up. As an example, many, many moons ago, I wrote a small control system, running on a 68HC11, for a commercial client which implemented a menu system using only two buttons. The main button selected menu items or process functions simply by taking into consideration the time that the button was held down for. A short period, <2 secs selected the function, >2 secs selected menu items. The second button toggled process options. This method is used on many process controllers to select functions and menu options, one such process controller that comes to mind which uses this mode of user interface is the Eurotherm 2414 (2404) controller. The US patent office should immediately review this silly descision and null the patent. [RANT OFF] Russell McMahon wrote: >Microsoft granted patent on button click timing. > > >http://computerworld.co.nz/news.nsf/NL/A05F9C5244A45A33CC256EA800334950 > >I must have missed the US patent office decision to exclude prior art from >consideration in granting US patents > >-- >http://www.piclist.com hint: To leave the PICList >mailto:piclist-unsubscribe-request@mitvma.mit.edu > > -- ------------------------------------------------------ | Antonio (Nino) L. Benci | ------------------------------------------------------ -- http://www.piclist.com hint: To leave the PICList mailto:piclist-unsubscribe-request@mitvma.mit.edu --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? Friends. Fun. Try the all-new Yahoo! Messenger -- http://www.piclist.com hint: To leave the PICList mailto:piclist-unsubscribe-request@mitvma.mit.edu