Microsoft Patents Your Keys

[idoik]

Microsoft’s endlessly creative legal department is constantly on the lookout for new completely obvious acts and items to patent. Once again they’ve managing to win a patent on something most of us use every day. Microsoft now owns the rights to using your keyboard to browse the web.
story from news wire @ Suicidegirls.com

Patent 6,785,865... (http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=/netahtml/srchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=6,785,865.WKU.&OS=PN/6,785,865&RS=PN/6,785,865)

click the pattent link to see. such use of tab

[Maxtr0sity]

(c) in response to a tab command, determining a next hyperlink in the document, wherein the determination of the next hyperlink is based on the element list comprising information describing the type of the next hyperlink and the location of the next hyperlink;
WTF?

[λ]

Oh, of course.. the USPTO don't have the time to oversee all the patents, so Micro$oft can patent pretty much whatever the hell they want.

Take 6,775,781 (http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=/netahtml/srchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=6,775,781.WKU.&OS=PN/6,775,781&RS=PN/6,775,781) for example. That's a patent for sudo, which has been around since 1981.

[mdipi]

wow...i was just starting to love this in Safari...

[Mik3]

How can a company suck so much?

[T-O]

Man.. there really creative... :) i mean he probally has like 100 people working on it day and night... Running trow windows.. and going.. "Hmm, could we patent that?" "let's try :) "

[JRPereira]

Do they have a patent on bsod's yet?

[TheRhoPsi]

You know, that's probably next.