Filed 4/8/2010. I'm fairly confident that I used the pull-down refresh mechanic in other apps well before that, so these guys had better have some seriously good evidence that they were first to invent.
Then again, it's rather easy to be granted a patent. It's much harder to make it hold up in court. Still frustrating when app developers have to be afraid of implementing simple and obvious functionality like this for fear of being sued!
As I understand it, there is a year after an invention is published in some form or another for an inventor to file the patent. That way the patent filing won't inhibit, or be inhibited by, the actual publication of the invention.
As a result, the filing date isn't the exact delimiter of what's prior art, but of course it must logically allow art more than a year prior to the filing date.
You'd have to look at the first time the public or media saw Tweetie use this technique. Anyone have any evidence?
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[ 3.2 ms ] story [ 26.6 ms ] threadThis patent thing is getting crazy day after day.
So I should patent refresh with pull up as well
Then again, it's rather easy to be granted a patent. It's much harder to make it hold up in court. Still frustrating when app developers have to be afraid of implementing simple and obvious functionality like this for fear of being sued!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prior_art#First-to-invent_versu...
The name on the patent is Loren Britcher, who wrote Tweetie. Did you implement the feature before Tweetie came out?
As a result, the filing date isn't the exact delimiter of what's prior art, but of course it must logically allow art more than a year prior to the filing date.
You'd have to look at the first time the public or media saw Tweetie use this technique. Anyone have any evidence?
http://twitter.com/atebits/status/21665180962
http://twitter.com/atebits/status/21629390400