Is this fun or what? Microsoft was granted a patent on April 27 for mouse mouse double-clicking.
Yes. For the methods related to double clicking a mouse button.
Say what? If memory serves (and it does sometimes), Microsoft was not even a company yet in 1964 when the mouse was invented. It was actually a professor at Stanford who invented the computer pointing device with a button on it that we all know now as a mouse.
What is it about patent law that allows a company to patent something they didn't invent 40 years after the original, and 20 years after it launched into wide-spread use? I don't get it.
What am I missing here?
One Comment
That's easy…. the professor patented the mouse itself – but a patent can also cover an action, too. So… I'm guessing some bored lawyer took a look and said "Hey, no one has a patent on how to *use* a mouse! Score!"