We weren’t expecting this to happen, especially after Christmas but it looks like Microsoft, Apple and Google will be sued by a little company from Michigan called Cygnus Systems. Why? Cygnus Systems holds on to patent US 7,346,850 called “System and method for iconic software environment management.” The abstract of the patent describes “a method and system for storing, navigating, and accessing files within an operating system through the use of a graphical thumbnail representing the video display of the active document within the active application.”

This patent which happens to describes features which are similar to Windows Explorer or Apple Finder was awarded to Cygnus in March 2008 despite being filed in 2001.

In other words, Cygnus’ patent describes features similar to those of Windows Explorer and Apple’s Finder. Will Microsoft, Google and Apple pay the price for their icons system? Probably they will. I don’t want to imagine the alternative.

via ArsTechnica

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