Re: 1-Click, Short-Click, Long-Click, More-Clicks (New Microsoft Patent)

[Philip Callan]

Matt wrote:

> I understand that a long time back somebody put an eraser on the end of 
> a pencil and tried to patent it.  The patent was denied because the 
> supposed invention was not a new invention---only a combination of old 
> inventions.

AIUI, inventions that are merely a amalgam of existing ideas are not 
'new' unless the amalgam is 'not obvious'.

Like the guys patent on the motor carriage, he went after Ford, but they 
ruled that although the internal combustion engine was new, the process 
of bonding it to a chassis to make a motorized carriage was 'obvious' 
once the motor was invented, so anyone else could have made it, so his 
invention was denied.

I guess you have to not only put things together, but do it in such a 
way nobody else had, or 'reasonably' /could/ have in order to get a patent.