I started out agreeing with you and at least for soft buttons I cannot
think of prior art. However I was driving last night and wanted to lock
in a different radio station and then I realized where I had seen the
concept before. Short push recall long lock new station in. Time to read
the actual words.

w..

Andrew Warren wrote:

> Russell McMahon <PICLIST@mitvma.mit.edu> wrote:
>
> > the patent talks about launching an application with different sub
> > attributes depending on how long the button click is held. This is
> > not the same as presenting a menu. It may be that Micro$oft'$
> > patent is essentially novel within a very limited range of
> > functionality. If so, they deserve protection
>
>     Exactly the point I was about to make.
>
>     The software-patent debates -- and the numerous examples of "bad"
>     software patents -- notwithstanding, the specific claims in this
>     particular patent seem valid to me.  Using button-click timing to
>     select between launching an application with no document selected
>     or with the last-accessed document active (for instance) is, as
>     far as I'm aware, innovative.

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