Here's the patent in question, #5,946,647, filed Feb. 1, 1996:
<a href="http://www.google.com/patents/US5946647" rel="nofollow">http://www.google.com/patents/US5946647</a><p><i>"A system and method causes a computer to detect and perform actions on structures identified in computer data... uses a pattern analysis unit ... to detect structures in the data, and links relevant actions to the detected structures. .... Thus, the user interface can present and enable selection of the detected structures, and upon selection of a detected structure, present the linked candidate actions."</i><p>And here's an older article with more description
<a href="http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2011/07/16/apple-vs-google-inside-an-android-patent-violation/" rel="nofollow">http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2011/07/16/apple-vs-google-insid...</a><p><i>"When an iPhone receives a message that contains a phone number or an address -- e-mail, Web or street -- those bits of data are automatically highlighted, underlined and turned into clickable links.<p>Click on the phone number, and the iPhone asks if you want to dial it. Click on the Web address, and it opens in Safari. Click on the street address, and Maps will display it."</i>
Sigh, emotionally this sort of crap from Apple just really irritates me. Sure software patents are stupid, but does it strike anyone else that this Android Jihad by Apple is doing more damage to their corporate brand than help?<p>I should have realized during the 'look and feel' wars that its part of their DNA.
<i>And it goes back, and forth, and back, and forth, and</i><p>In other news, "Samsung adds four more complaints to its German patent offensive against Apple":<p><a href="http://www.theverge.com/2011/12/19/2646835/samsung-apple-germany-patent-lawsuit-four-claims" rel="nofollow">http://www.theverge.com/2011/12/19/2646835/samsung-apple-ger...</a><p>I would love for someone at one of these companies to explain how on earth this benefits the consumer.
The Commission found that the HTC devices infringed these two claims of the '647 patent:<p><pre><code> 1. A computer-based system for detecting structures in data
and performing actions on detected structures, comprising:
an input device for receiving data;
an output device for presenting data;
a memory storing information including program routines
including:
an analyzer server for detecting structures in the
data, and for linking actions to the detected
structures;
a user interface enabling the selection of a detected
structure and a linked action; and
an action processor for performing the selected action
linked to the selected structure; and
a processing unit coupled to the input device, the
output device, and the memory for controlling the
execution of the program routines.
8. The system recited in claim 1, wherein the user
interface highlights detected structures.</code></pre>
Hey, Apple et al., here's an innovative idea: let's all agree to start the next thing from the most effective version of the last thing. We might all benefit.<p>(I wonder how Wikipedia would be doing if we weren't allowed to modify others' entries?)
And this gives you an example of what we can expect from the ITC, which the OPEN act (the proposed "compromise" in place of SOPA) claims we can trust to censor websites. Quality work here, really engendering trust.
This feature is largely useless, anyway. An example is, I receive text messages from Amazon when an order ships and is delivered. The "system and method to cause a computer to detect and perform actions" then highlights the tracking number and order number as though they are phone numbers, which it immediately dials when your finger comes nearby. This is very annoying because they are not phone numbers, they are tracking numbers. Lacking this feature will make me like my phone <i>more</i>.
Any device that has a browser that can detect [regex] structures and infer actions (ex. Chrome's omnibox)... or any device that detects header structures and infers actions of the following markup (ex. text/html links)... TIL Apple invented regex interfaces.