Nine years after receiving the original patent filing, the United States Patent and Trademark Office has finally awarded Apple Inc, and inventor Steven P. Jobs the patent for the OS X Dock.
The original patent was filed on December 20, 1999 and aside from Apple Inc, three inventors were listed on the file, Bas Ording, Lindsay J. Donald, and of course current Apple CEO Steven P. Jobs. The patent focuses primarily on the dock’s ability to magnify icons, and present information to the user when sweeping across the dock.
The official explanation as described on the patent:
Methods and systems for providing graphical user interfaces are described. To provide greater access and consolidation to frequently used items in the graphical user interface, a userbar is established which includes a plurality of item representations. To permit a greater number of items to reside in the userbar, a magnification function can be provided which magnifies items within the userbar when they are proximate the cursor associated with the graphical user interface.
It’s tough to determine if Apple will be aggressive with this patent, as they have done others. But, there are some third party dock programs out there that might feel a sting soon. Stardock might need to pay extra close attention and make sure that they are in the clear.
Read – United States Patent and Trademark Office
[via Gizmodo]
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3 Comments to “OS X Dock Patent Finally Awarded to Apple, Nine Years After Being Filed”
If there is one UI element that consistently gets in my way, it’s the Dock. Even hidden, more often than not, I want to do something else when the dock pops up from being hidden.
I wish it could be disabled or so I also need to hold down some modifier keys before it is displayed.
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Why don’t you just make it tiny so that it gets in your way less of the time?
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I’m not completely in love with the dock either. QuickSilver is good, but the dock still accidentally gets in my way when I design and do other things that involve a lot of mouse movement.
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