The patent grants Microsoft ownership over the use of a button that is pressed for a normal amount of time;
Umm… Can they do that?
microsoft can do everything, but remember, it’s for mice on pda’s, not something often done, in fact, I’ve never even heard of it 
this aticle was just talking about how the wording of the documentations on the patent makes it sound like it is talking about double clicking for everything instead of just on the palms.
at the end of the article it also talks about how PalmOne have retained the rights to use their Graffiti handwriting recognition system. Xerox took PalmOne to court in like 1997 believing Palm had violated its ‘unistroke’ input system. But Palm were cleared cos the court ruled that the patent was invalid due to the existence of prior inventions.
Poor Xerox, all of their cool ideas get stolen.
This is a really dumb question, but do any other OS’es use double click or is it all single click? I don’t remember consciously (or unconscioulsy for that matter…) whether I double clicked ever while using a Linux or a Mac 
Xerox created the technology - but companies like Apple and MS made them popular 
Here’s a better question:
Who was the first to use a mouse in the first place?
Apple?
I played around with RedHat Linux for a while. I used 2 different Window Managers (but i don’t remember their names) and both of them used the double click to select icons on the desktop, or when viewing icons inside of the “explorer” window.
Who worked for Apple and stoled the sorce code to make his own Os (and the use of a mouse:P?
Bill Gates
From seaching google - The Stanford Research Institute, where Doug Engelbart did his research first developed the mouse. After a while, several of the original designers went to Xerox and improved the mouse based on Engelbart’s patents. At one of the Xerox demonstrations, Steve Jobs liked it and wanted it used in the Apple computers. So the story goes at least
I think a swedish guy invented the mouse, and he’s been struggeling against huge companies and accusing them for patent intrution (sp?). Something like that.
I thought Doug Engelbart was the one who invented the mouse?
Who worked for Apple and stoled the sorce code to make his own Os (and the use of a mouse?)
Right… Apple OS… before DOS… sure.
-EG
Uh, yeah, actually Mac OS came before Windows.
Of course it didn’t come before DOS.
And as for the mouse: Two people went into the Xerox warehouse to steal the mouse. When Bill Gates got there, he found that someone had already stolen it. That would be Steve Jobs.
edit: As the proud owner of a PDA, I can tell you that Double-clicks (or taps in this case) are highly uneconomical. Require too much energy.
I didn’t think you could use a mouse in DOS…
yeah. as someone said, Xerox first, then Apple, then M$.
i dont see how m$ could patent it…
That’s mhittymuckstuff. Patent the double click…gimme a break.
the double click is entertaining. A friend of mine was over the other week using my computer and he was double, triple, quadruple, clicking everything. I left hime to click to his hearts desire all the while chuckling to myself while watching tv in the next room. “click, click”…“click, click”…“click, click” “click, click”…“click, click”…“click, click”“click, click”“click, click”“click, click” :lol:
if you read… its for the PDA’s
Also, the other side is that another company could sue MS for having double clicks on their PDA’s. MS has been sued for stupid software patents in the past, so they could be trying to run out the supply by patenting stuff themselves.
further proof that Kirupaforum and molson don’t mix well
Um since when have the actions of human beings (as in movement etc. etc…) been patented… lol… even if its on the PDA’s a guy still has to tap… and that motion is called double clicking. How can you put a patent on that?!