Thursday, October 16, 2014

Live Tiles live another day... 52 Patent clams ruled invalid in Microsoft's favor

WindowsITPro - Microsoft Wins Suit to Keep Live Tiles

In 2012, a company called SurfCast filed a suit against Microsoft that issued 52 different claims of patent infringement (U.S. Patent Numbers 6,724,403 and 7,933,632). The company claimed that it owned patents on a "computer display that organizes content from a variety of sources into a grid of tiles that is constantly updated." In Microsoft's circumstance, this is what we've all come to know as "Live Tiles" in both Windows 8.x and Windows Phone.

The case settled on October 15th, with the New York Patent Trial and Appeal Board ruling that all 52 of the suit's claims are invalid, handing SurfCast a resounding defeat and allowing Microsoft to retain and develop its Live Tile functionality.

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Law360 - Microsoft Gets SurfCast Display Patent Nixed In AIA Review [Paywalled]

Law360, New York (October 15, 2014, 2:48 PM ET) -- The Patent Trial and Appeal Board ruled Tuesday that a SurfCast Inc. graphical user interface patent is invalid, in a win for Microsoft Corp., whose Windows 8 and Windows Phone 7 operating systems are accused of infringing the patent.

All 52 claims of SurfCast's patent,...

Love them, or hate them, looks like they live another day. Personally I love them, but hey, that's just me... :)

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Well, does that mean that Microsoft can't turn around and file suit against Google and Apple if they developed their own live tiles? I'm not really a fan of them, although they do provide more information than just a number in a circle indicating how many actions are pending.