Apple Patents the OS X Dock!!!

[Curt]

I'm sure Apple's lawyers wouldn't even break a sweat drafting their arguments in a case like this. I have to say, though, that I can't really see what or how they are losing by having the dock replicated on other platforms.

I hope Apple doesn't go after the other dock apps but given Apple's attitude and sue-happy legal history, I'm almost sure they will

Software patents are evil.

-MrCrispy (October 08, 2008, 03:17 PM)

I hope you're wrong about Apple... if you are not, I think that going after small developers is petty.

-Darwin (October 08, 2008, 03:55 PM)

They already did this with Y'z Dock way back when.

-Dirhael (October 08, 2008, 03:59 PM)

Oh crap!

-Darwin (October 08, 2008, 04:00 PM)

It's interesting that they actually were granted the patent when you consider the fact that Stardock have been making docks since 1994, years before Apple implemented their version.

-Dirhael (October 08, 2008, 05:38 PM)

Something tells me that Stardock is preparing for the end of ObjectDock. Today they send out a news letter, saying that lately they have not been happy with the development of ObjectDock, partly because of how good Vista is looking, implying that ObjectDock probably will have to change or die. They don't mention Apple or any court trial.

You can read the linked pdf Stardock Customer report, 2008, ('some' might want to go straight to page 17, and read on from there), it is a very interesting read:

http://www.stardock....tomerreport-2008.pdf

[Darwin]

I couldn't really find any discussion of ObjectDock in the report. Brad Wardell talks about My Dock, though, but not with any reference to Vista, just Dell and Impulse branded versions of it. Apparently, My Dock is a brand new dock built from scratch, not on top of Object Dock. The discussion about Vista, and how good it looks, seemed more centred around WindowBlinds and Icon Packager - key components of Object Desktop, which he did indicate he has been unhappy with development-wise. Mostly because of issues in the end-user's experience when trying to use technology and/or themes developed for Vista under XP.