Microsoft patents the double-click? Don’t believe the hype, but count on a reexamination request

Link: In this article, Sam Varghese claims that Microsoft recently received a United States patent “on” the computer mouse double click. The article is short on analysis of the patent, relying only on brief quotes taken from the specification juxtaposed next to statements attributed to the company regarding its intent to use its patent portfolio to improve earnings. The article closes with a reference to the company’s statement relating to its intent to license its intellectual property on the FAT file system, and the Patent Foundation’s request to rexamine the FAT patent.

The article is quite alarmist in nature. The headline (”Microsoft granted patent for double-click”) and general structure of the article appear to be designed to elicit anti-Microsoft sentiment that is, lately, so easy to trigger.

Anyone interested in this issue should review the patent before believing the hype of this article. The recently granted “double click” patent (US 6,727,830) includes claims directed to multiple clicks that result in multiple related actions (e.g., open an application with a particular predefined document, cause the application to display its last known state, etc.). The specific actions are based on the length of time for which the button is depressed. The ‘830 patent does not appear directed to the simple double click, but rather to an improved double click.

Claim 9 is directed to a single click method. I’m suprised the article didn’t focus on this aspect of the patent (think “Microsoft patents mouse click”!).

I wonder if the background research behind this article actually included an investigation into the scope of the claims. Maybe the headline was just too juicy to resist regardless of any background research.

I’m sure a Request for Reexamination is forthcoming.

On a side note, can anyone tell me how to request reexamination of the scope of a news headline?