Microsoft is making hay today over the news that it’s received its ten thousandth patent (which you can see here). I’m kind of addicted to rummaging through Google Patents and finding old filings with drawings that are fun for one reason or another–either because they’re of things we’re all familiar with, or because they depict stuff that never went anywhere. Microsoft is, of course, a software company first and foremost–and most software patent drawings are mundane diagrams, even when they depict something new and significant. So the ten images that follow skew towards Microsoft’s sideline business of hardware. I like ‘em anyway–and I didn’t repeat any pictures from our gallery of patents relating to anthropomorphic “assistants.” You can view the original patents by clicking the filing dates.
February 10th, 2009 at 5:23 pm
Having once worked nears racks of old Microsoft documentation (but not having any of it handy), I imagine they used it when shipping the volumes upon volumes of documentation you could get for their products (especially the developer documentation).
February 12th, 2009 at 4:13 pm
Microsoft bound documentation came in these plastic boxes. The lid would flip down and hold the document for you. It was very clever.
February 14th, 2009 at 9:42 am
It’s a shame the average Joe can’t afford a patent or the renewal fee’s that our government in a very stupid move decided was a great idea.
The guy that developed some really great green innovations for our vehicles lost all his patents because he couldn’t afford the renewals and of course the big guys got the patents. I heard this on NPR quite a while ago.
Of course Microsoft has so many patents…they have the money to get the patent and to keep it. Sorry this story doesn’t make me warm and fuzzy but I don’t see MS as a great company especially when I have so many problems with IE and other MS programs.