Just how many anti-Android patents does Microsoft have up its sleeve?
In reading through the Redmond company’s lawsuit this afternoon against Barnes & Noble and the manufacturers of the Nook e-reader over its use of Android, it would have made sense to see a lot of crossover with the patents cited in Microsoft’s suit against Motorola last year for its use of Android.
[Follow-up: Google: Microsoft’s Android claims ‘threaten innovation’]
That’s not the case. The new lawsuit against B&N cites a completely different slate of patents. Here’s a rundown, with abstracts and links to the patent documents.
Patent #5,778,372: “Remote retrieval and display management of electronic document with incorporated images.” July 7, 1998.
A browser remotely retrieves electronic documents from a remote computer network for viewing by a user. For enhancing responsiveness, the browser initially displays an electronic document without a background image so that the electronic document is initially displayed more quickly. The browser also prioritizes downloading of embedded images of the document by their incorporation in the currently visible portion of the electronic document. Further, the browser dynamically creates additional connections for retrieving resources incorporated into the electronic document from the remote computer network.
Patent #6,339,780: “Loading status in a hypermedia browser having a limited available display area.” Jan. 15, 2002.
Described herein is a portable computer having a limited display area. An Internet or other hypermedia browser executes on the portable computer to load and display content in a content viewing area. During times when the browser is loading content, the browser displays a temporary, animated graphic element over the content viewing area. The graphic element is removed after the content is loaded, allowing unobstructed viewing of the loaded content.
Patent #5,889,522: “System provided child window controls.” March 30, 1999.
New varieties of child window controls are provided as system resources that application programs may exploit. The preferred embodiment of the present invention provides a dynamic link library (DLL) for implementing the new child window controls as part of an operating system. The new child window controls include a header bar control for providing header bars in application programs. The new controls also include a hot key control that allows a user to view and edit hot key combinations. The new controls further include a tab control for establishing tabs that differentiate amongst pages in user interfaces provided by application programs. An image list data type is defined and functions are provided for manipulating the image list data type. Image lists include multiple like-sized images that are stored efficiently in a single bitmap.
Patent #6,891,551: “Selection handles in editing electronic documents.” May 10, 2005
A computer system and method for highlighting and selecting elements of electronic documents is disclosed. In one embodiment, a selection area identifies an initial selection of data, and one or more selection handles appear on the selection area to allow dynamic resizing of the selection area to select a larger or smaller portion of data or number of items.
Patent #6,957,233: “Method and apparatus for capturing and rendering annotations for non-modifiable electronic content.” Oct. 18, 2005.
A system and method for capturing annotations for a non-modifiable document is disclosed. Once it is determined that an annotation is to be created, the system determines the file position of the selected object. The file position of the selected object is stored along with the created annotation in another file or a non-read only portion of a file storing the document. Using the file position, the annotation may be properly identified with the selected object without modifying the non-modifiable document.
Here’s the full text of the lawsuit filed today in U.S. District Court in Seattle: PDF, 9 pages
Previously: Microsoft sues Barnes & Noble over Android in Nook
