Flippin’ off Microsoft: Patent app describes fingerflip-powered document navigation

I can see you reinvented mouse gestures but in a radically less useful way. May I suggest that instead of fingers you use generic "pointing device"? This way your patent wouldn't be trivially avoidable. And instead of simply flipping pages use it to do ANY sort of interaction? This would make the patent so delightfully broad and generic it would really hurt those FOSS communists.

But, fortunately, you're too dumb for all that...

;)

This is a patent application from Microsoft. If it gets approved, then we will know just how dumb the Patent Office actually is.

Quoting:then we will know just how dumb the Patent Office actually is.

I'm afraid we already do.

But this patent is pending, right? AFAIR this process takes so long to give some time to a *real* inventor to come in and claim the prize. Unfortunately few people have the patience to slog through a mountain of new applications dumped on the patent office every day. But this also mean that we, as potential inventors of some of them, are somewhat dumb too...

Quoting:And instead of simply flipping pages use it to do ANY sort of interaction?

Well, then there would be prior art, at least to be found in Opera since 2001. But hey, Opera AS is a company which also happens to have filed a complaint against Microsoft, so they could buy it!

Right. But who cares about prior art, anyway? ;)