[Fedora-legal-list] Dock-like application status

[Mathieu Bridon (bochecha)]

Hi,

First of all, I wish you all a happy new year.

I saw in the Brazilian Fedora magazine [1] that Apple had patented its
Dock application.

The magazine says that the patent covers « positioning of icons and
cursors, as well as the zoom effect when the mouse moves over an icon ».

The actual text of the patent [2] is:
"""
Methods and systems for providing graphical user interfaces are
described. To provide greater access and consolidation to frequently
used items in the graphical user interface, a userbar is established
which includes a plurality of item representations. To permit a greater
number of items to reside in the userbar, a magnification function can
be provided which magnifies items within the userbar when they are
proximate the cursor associated with the graphical user interface.
"""

Is the legal team aware of this issue ? What's gonna happen about those
dock-like applications in the Fedora repositories, given the Fedora
policy on patented software ?

Regards, 

[1]
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-marketing-list/2008-December/msg00240.html
[2]
http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=7,434,177.PN.&OS=PN/7,434,177&RS=PN/7,434,177


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Mathieu Bridon (bochecha)
French Fedora Ambassador

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"They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety." ~Benjamin Franklin
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