Steve Jobs is listed as one of the three inventors on the iPod patent application. Claim 1 is for:
A method of assisting user interaction with a multimedia asset player by way of a hierarchically ordered user interface, comprising: displaying a first order user interface having a first list of user selectable items; receiving a user selection of one of the user selectable items; and automatically transitioning to and displaying a second order user interface based upon the user selection.
Was there really no mp3 player with a hierarchical user interface, or even a publication envisioning one, before this patent was filed on October 28, 2002? I find that hard to believe.
It seems that the brilliant idea (not) here is to take the functionality of a hierarchical menu, as has appeared in all Windows and Macintosh computers for many years, and make the top level of the menu the main interface of a music player. I suspect that the fact that the iPod uses the exact same font as Mac OS 9's hierarchical menus will make it easier for lawyers challenging the patent to connect the dots.
Perhaps, since the patent application has been published prior to being granted, competitors will find a way to help the PTO understand how obvious it is. And/or supply examples of prior art.
Why was this patent application published prior to publication? That's now the default practice of the PTO. One can request non-publication but, according to my patent lawyer:
...the effective "cost" of requesting nonpublication is that the requester fails to
get the benefit of the "provisional rights" that are accorded to a "publisher," namely
that after the patent application is published, he has the right to notify an infringer
that pending claims are being infringed, and then when and if the infringed claim(s)
actually issue, he can sue the infringer and get damages retroactively to the date of
notification.
Perhaps more importantly from Apple's perspective, one cannot request nonpublication and file that patent application internationally. In the words of the Manual of Patent Examining Procedure:
...an application shall not be published if an applicant submits at the time of filing of the application a request for nonpublication, certifying that the invention disclosed in the U.S. application has not and will not be the subject of an application filed in another country...
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