Microsoft “iBooks Killer” Patent Stole Virtual Page Turn from iPhone App

USPTO patent shows Microsoft filed a patent for “virtual page turn” in January 2009 based on an existing iPhone app.

Microsoft: Someone else’s existing technology, delivered tomorrow.

Microsoft Patents iBooks Killer, USPTO 20100175018

The United States Patent and Trademark Office just published patent 20100175018 filed January 7, 2009 by Microsoft. It showed that Microsoft claimed to be the owner of the virtual page turn, with “inventors” Petschnigg, Georg, (Seattle, WA); Harris, Jonathan Reed, (Redmond, WA); Hinds, Joshua J., (Duvall, WA); Boler, Sabrina, (Seattle, WA).

MicroShills rejoiced, because it appears that Apple demoed the virtual page turn “technology” one year later, at the iPad Keynote with the Apple iBooks App. Is Apple in trouble stealing from Microsoft? Quite a few sites thought the Microsoft has the iBooks killer in terms of “Apple iBooks Could Face Microsoft Patent Challenge.”

Too bad those people didn’t realize the well known prior-art from Apple’s own App Store.

Prior Art: Real Virtual Page Turn on iPhone App

Did the Redmond company started innovating all of a sudden? That’s for you to decide. Here’s a video on YouTube from October 23, 2008 showing the iPhone Classics App with virtual page turn.

Here’s the Microsoft patent. Notice the date, January 7, 2009.

In case you need more information

• 2008: iPhone, Classics App is publicized in the technology world with virtual page turn
• 2009: Microsoft submits page turn patent

Hum, we wonder who is first? Keep riding that coattail Microsoft. The only thing different is the Microsoft patent is “for” its 2 screened Courier vaporware (which is incidentally, based on an Apple concept from decades ago).

So a Microsoft patent for a piece of software they don’t have, on an imaginary device they don’t have, but based on a real shipping competitor software, on a real shipping competitor phone. Looks like the Redmond Dilbert committee is working extra hard in recent days.

Is that a fail or epic fail? Don’t you think the next thing you know, Microsoft would be patenting plagiarism?

via
USPTO

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Tags: Apple, Fail, iPhone, Microsoft

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 13th, 2010 at 12:39 pm and is filed under Microsoft. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.