SIGIA-L Mail Archives: Navigation Patent (was RE: SIGIA-L: (no
Navigation Patent (was RE: SIGIA-L: (no subject))
From: Tal Herman (therman_at_bitcast.com)
Date: Tue Aug 15 2000 - 15:55:37 EDT
It's been a while since I thought about this issue, but there is potentially
relevant legal case law out there on this subject. The case to look at is
_Lotus v. Borland_,
<http://www.richmond.edu/~jolt/v1i1/lotus_v._borland.html>. It came out of
the First Circuit Court of Appeals and the upshot of the ruling was that
Borland did not infringe on Lotus copyright in interface elements of the
Lotus 1-2-3 program when it used those same elements in the Borland
spreadsheet product. The case was appealed to the US Supreme Court, which
split evenly (4-4) on the issues, thus leaving the First Circuit decision as
valid precedent, at least in the First Circuit. This case does not address
the questions which might arise in modern GUI interfaces where the design
elements might be more compelling than the keyboard commands at issue in
Lotus v. Borland. Nonetheless, it is a starting point for research on the
issue.
Tal
====================================
tal herman
therman_at_seralat.com
<http://www.seralat.com/>
[Please note the new e-mail address]
====================================
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-sigia-l_at_asis.org [mailto:owner-sigia-l_at_asis.org]On Behalf Of
James Weinheimer
Sent: Monday, August 14, 2000 1:41 PM
To: ASIS-IA sigia-l_at_asis.org
Subject: SIGIA-L: (no subject)
Reposted from Paul Caron--Jim
--------------------------
Hey, folks,
A client is asking if the navigation we've developed for them infringes on
any patents. Has anyone ever heard of a navigation scheme being patented?
Or legal issues arising from the development and use of a navigation
scheme that was similar to someone else's?
It seemed like a silly question at first (every IA team would require a
lawyer for every project then, wouldn't they?), but upon thinking about
it, I could see a situation where, for example, a complete duplication of
Yahoo's hierarchical subject structure might raise a few legal
eyebrows....
Suffice it to say that I'm not worried about it in this particular
context. But for purposes of due diligence, and 'cause it was food for
thought, I thought I'd ask the question here.
___________________________________
- Paul Caron
Senior Manager, Information Architecture
Luminant Worldwide
w: (212)842-6329
(212)842-7329
c: (646)263-5506
e: paul.caron_at_luminant.com
--=_alternative 00585C228525693B_=
Content-Type: text/html; charset="us-ascii"
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">Hey, folks,</font>
<br>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">A client is asking if the navigation
we've
developed for
them infringes on any patents. Has anyone ever heard of a navigation scheme
being patented?
Or legal issues arising from the development and use of a navigation scheme
that
was similar
to someone else's?</font>
<br>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">It seemed like a silly question at first
(every IA team
would require a lawyer for every project then, wouldn't they?), but upon
thinking about it, I
could see a situation where, for example, a complete duplication of Yahoo's
hierarchical
subject structure might raise a few legal eyebrows.... </font>
<br>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">Suffice it to say that I'm not worried
about
it in this
particular context. But for purposes of due diligence, and 'cause it
was
food for
thought, I thought I'd ask the question here.</font>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif"><br>
___________________________________<br>
- Paul Caron</font>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif"> Senior Manager, Information
Architecture<br>
Luminant Worldwide<br>
w: (212)842-6329<br>
(212)842-7329<br>
c: (646)263-5506 <br>
e: paul.caron_at_luminant.com</font>
--=_alternative 00585C228525693B_=--
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