[IxDA Discuss] Microsoft to license Office 2007 UI system

[Jeff Axup]

Hi all,

Maybe I'm missing something, but I was under the impression that UI
features (e.g. widgets and look and feel) can't be patented and aren't
subject to copyright. MS might be able to require licences to interact
with their system or use an SDK, but I'm pretty sure we're all free to
create look-alike widgets in say AJAX and use them as we like. Amazon
patented the one-click ordering feature, but I believe that was more
about the underlying ordering system, which probably falls under a
work-process patent? Do we know any software patent attorneys we can
query?

-Jeff

____________________________________________________________________________
Jeff Axup      Ph.D. Candidate - University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
                   Principal Consultant, Mobile Community Design Consulting
                   Currently based in Washington, USA

Research:    Mobile Group Research Methods, Social Networks, Group Usability
E-mail:        axup <at> userdesign.com
Blog:           http://mobilecommunitydesign.com
Moblog:       http://memeaddict.blogspot.com
Academic:   http://www.infenv.itee.uq.edu.au
____________________________________________________________________________



On 11/27/06, Jared M. Spool <jspool at uie.com> wrote:
>
> On Nov 27, 2006, at 4:52 AM, Matthias Mueller-Prove wrote:
>
> > Can anyone explain to me (rhetorical question) why UI concepts that
> > are around for about 10 years are subject to a MS license?
>
> In war, the victors write the license agreements...
>
> Jared
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