With this patent Apple managed to stop import of HTC phones in the US:
“A system and method causes a computer to detect and perform actions on structures identified in computer data. The system provides an analyzer server, an application program interface, a user interface and an action processor. The analyzer server receives from an application running concurrently data having recognizable structures, uses a pattern analysis unit, such as a parser or fast string search function, to detect structures in the data, and links relevant actions to the detected structures. The application program interface communicates with the application running concurrently, and transmits relevant information to the user interface. 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. Upon selection of an action, the action processor performs the action on the detected structure.”
Read the patent here: http://www.google.com/patents/US5946647?printsec=abstract&source=gbs_overview_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false
And when you start looking at the flow-plans, you can begin to understand that by pure luck Apple was able to patent this. I could have to, because I am doing more or less the same thing when I am getting data from a provider, checking against a database and updating it if there are differences.
But it is about time that someone stood up and talked some sense to the patent bureau in the US, and also to the judges. These are common algorithms, and the patents are written so broad that you can more or less do what you want with the patent. What Apple has patented is just something that even script kids have been doing since the beginning of computer age.
As Apple says: Competition is healthy, but our competitors should create their own original technology, not steal ours. (translated from Norwegian).
To Apple: Stop reinventing the wheel and patenting it. Stop stealing from the past, and from great programmers before you. Stop hindering inventions and healthy competition.
