Apple gets patent for touch controls on iPhone

[Thorin]

Apple has won a U.S. patent for touch-screen controls and gained a potential legal weapon against iPhone competitors.  [..]  A multi-page patent available online at the US Patent and Trade Office on Monday details iPhone or iPod Touch commands such as finger or thumb swiping, twisting, or spreading to flip pages, rotate views, or enlarge images.  [..]

Apple chief operating officer Tim Cook [..] said he believes iPhones are "years ahead of the competition" and that they are vigilantly watching to make certain rivals don't usurp Apple's intellectual property.  "We think competition is good," Cook said. "We are ready to suit up and go against anyone. However, we will not stand for having our IP ripped off and will use whatever weapons at our disposal."

source: http://www.canada.com/topics/technology/story.html?id=1222871

Maybe I'm in a bad mood today, but it seems to me that being able to patent finger movements is akin to being able to patent steering wheels.  Can you imagine if Ford was the only company allowed to use circular steering input devices in their cars, while everyone else had to make something obviously different so as to avoid protracted legal battles?  Can you imagine if Honda lost such a battle and had to retrofit every car on the road with triangular steering input devices?

The crazy part is Apple can now force other phone makers to take their multi-touch devices off the market and Apple doesn't even have to offer them a license - Apple can just flat-out refuse any competitor the right to make a multi-touch device!  Now, if patent law stated that the patent holder is required to provide a license for the patented technology at a reasonable price to anyone willing to pay that reasonable price, then patent law would have its desired effect of ensuring an inventor is reimbursed for their hard work, but current patent law just creates monopolies.

[Mr. Analog]

I think in Ford's situation there was a big case for prior art, but I do agree with you.

Imagine if someone had patented the push-button or the dial?

[Lazybones]

I think there is prior art from TED talks I have seen or other  touch screen products like microsoft surface that do the whole pinch zoom thing.

IMHO the iPhone is the only smartphone doing a good job of the whole finger interface idea. Capacitive touch screens are far better for sliding movements than the pressure sensitive ones found on most devices.

[Thorin]

I think in Ford's situation there was a big case for prior art, but I do agree with you.

Current patent law would only require that you state it is a circular steering input device for land-based vehicles, and you'd get the patent.  Although I'm not sure Ford was the first to do it.  I don't remember what 189x Mercedes used to steer.  I do know that even into the early 1900s there were some cars with a tiller like a sailboat, to steer.

[Lazybones]

Some also had handlebars like a bicycle if I recall correctly.

They are experimenting with joystick style drive by wire systems in some prototype cars.

[Thorin]

Yeah.  The upside of a joystick is that it can be moved to the side so the driver doesn't hit the wheel in a collision.  The downsides are that it's really hard to do the minor adjustments we're constantly doing with the wheel (unless the joystick bends over nearly 90 degrees to the side for big turns), and that after a century with wheels, it'll take a while for people to get used to something else (and in that time will have lots of accidents).  Oh, and there's the question of where do you mount it?  On the left side of the driver, by the door, so that the passengers can't grab it?  Or on the right side because most people are right-handed?