A company that works with us had to pay more than $500K to JFax to get a license (?) to use store and forward.

Edit:
Company: Catch Curve, AudioFAX patent portfolio.

Yes exactly. It's not a patent application about multitouch as such, but rather one very specific application of multitouch.

For a mini primer on how to read patent applications, read the claims. They're really the only thing that ultimately counts. Start with claim 1. If your solution does something differently from any part of the text in the claim, the patent does not apply to you. For the following claims, if they say "... of claim 1", then if claim 1 does not apply to you, then the following claims do not also apply to you.

Reading the summary is then useful (much better than the abstract), since there they generally try to explain what this patent is really about. In this case it talks much about detecting a one-dimensional scrolling movement vs. two-dimensional movement based on the initial movement of the finger. Quickly reading it looks like the use of a two-finger gesture ("the next item heuristic") to go to the next and previous image, like in a photo application.

So for the original thread title: no, it's not a end of multitouch for... anyone.

Thanks for posting the link. That patent does not cover any store and forward of a fax transmission using any method. It's more specific than that.

Speaking of patents and touchscreens, have you read this?

http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/28/p...sony-surfaces/

Fun stuff.

Tim

hopefully then my generic routine which scrolls everything does not fall foul

is it considered a "command" if I read mouse inputs in and use the delta of them to adjust the offset of my canvas giving the effect of a scrolling motion?

int canvas_mousemove(mx,my)
{
dx = old.mx - mx;
dy = old.my - my;
}

int canvas_timer()
{
currentcell.x += dx;
currentcell.y += dy;
dx-=dt*sgn(dx);
dy-=dt*sgn(dy);
}

I think you are OK if don't have all of the scroll, move, and swipe commands. You also don't run afoul if you published before Apple first submitted this for a patent.

well since I've only been coding in c for 12 months i cannot say I have.
mind you, ive got plenty of code in private use which makes use of similar operations.

Alright, ill just remove every single bit of scrolling code from liqbase entirely and since i cannot use the touch screen sensory input to run commands I will remove all the button actions as well, we best hope the new n900 has enough keys to cope.

DPad here we come!

mmm upon reflection i'm ok.
I do not use heuristics, its a constant operation merely reading the current deltas
They get charged up when I get standard mouse events but they are always happening.
hurray! i can scroll again.

Development of medicines.

Exactly. If you look up the file history of this patent:

http://portal.uspto.gov/external/portal/pair

You'll see that the original claims, which included multitouch, were rejected and they had to include more detail to get the patent issued.