Awn

Apple awarded patent on the Dock, what effect will this have on AWN?

Asked by michaeljm on 2008-10-08

Apple was awarded a patent for the Dock on Tuesday. Will this have a effect on the AWN?

Question information

Language:: English Edit question

Status:: Solved

For:: Awn Edit question

Assignee:: No assignee Edit question

Solved by:: Mark Lee

Solved:: 2008-10-09

Last query:: 2008-10-09

Last reply:: 2008-10-09

Link existing bug

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Mark Lee (malept) said on 2008-10-08:

(Preface: I AM NOT A LAWYER. Also, I haven't yet discussed this with the other Awn developers.)

As I currently understand it, this *United States* patent does not affect us, for the following reasons:
* We don't have any support parabolic zoom (for technical reasons).
* There may or may not be prior art.
* I am the only Awn developer residing in the United States, as far as I can tell. Furthermore, the areas I work on have between little to nothing to do with the display of the dock.
* The source code (both tarballs and development repositories) is hosted by Launchpad, whose servers reside in England.

It may affect distributors of Awn binaries in the US, but I am unsure of all of the ramifications.

(Postscript: I AM NOT A LAWYER, ESPECIALLY NOT A PATENT LAWYER.)

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