This whole thread reminds me of a bit article from The
Onion from quite a while ago...

http://home.att.net/~jbcole/humor/Microsoft_patents.htm

Mike H.

>I wonder what Xerox and Apple will have to say about
>this?  Mice have *always* had different functions
>depending on the timing/cadence of a clicks - Macs would
>be unusable without this.
>
>This wouldn't have got past the girl on reception at the
>UK patent office - and I suspect in most of the rest of
>the World too.  You cannot patent an idea (or software,
>or genes, or business processes, or a number of other
>things) in the UK, only an object.  I think this is true
>of the rest of Europe, too.
>
>I wonder why the US has gone so far from the original
>principles of patents?
>
>Cheers,
>
>Howard Winter
>St.Albans, England
>
>--
>http://www.piclist.com hint: To leave the PICList
>mailto:piclist-unsubscribe-request@mitvma.mit.edu

_________________________________________________________________
Stop worrying about overloading your inbox - get MSN Hotmail Extra Storage!
http://join.msn.click-url.com/go/onm00200362ave/direct/01/

--
http://www.piclist.com hint: To leave the PICList
mailto:piclist-unsubscribe-request@mitvma.mit.edu