Someone is trying to patent Quickwriting

[Alfa21-mobile]

I think the concept behind quickwriting is unrelated to the numbers of
zones but the way you use them to write.

http://mrl.nyu.edu/~perlin/experiments/quikwriting/
"The basic conceit of Quikwriting is that you make a character by
moving your pen first out of, and then back into, a central resting
done. So drawing a character is sort of like drawing a flower petal.
Below is the very first demo I made for it"

btw, in this page I read also:
"Then several things happened. Microsoft got interested in it and
licensed it from NYU (thereby helping to support our research!)"

so, I think it's not free :P


On Tue, Nov 16, 2010 at 9:05 AM, Daniele Ricci <daniele.athome at gmail.com> wrote:
> Cross-posting for broadcasting Justus idea.
>
>
> On Tue, Nov 16, 2010 at 00:00, Justus Winter
> <4winter at informatik.uni-hamburg.de> wrote:
>> I am also tempted to mail the person(s?) behind 8pen addressing my
>> concerns about his attempt to patent the idea, maybe even challenge his
>> position stating that I would not recognize his claim. I believe the
>> company is based in France (information is a scarce resource on both
>> the 8pen and the companies (3qubits) one, I did a whois query). I'd be
>> very interested whether such a patent is enforceable within the EU...
>>
>
> I already did a few days ago; just a couple of mails... the interest
> part is this:
>
> === message received from them ===
> Dear Daniele,
>
> In fact we did not know about the "Quickwriting" method that you have
> pointed out to us. It strikes us as an incredible coincidence.
>
> We're not interested in engaging into a legal debate, but in the
> development of an efficient alternative to conventional keyboards on
> small devices. However, intellectual property law does apply, and
> copying the "8pen" does violate it within the scope set by the patent
> previously referred to.
>
> We're not dealing personally with issues that are in conflict with our
> patent, or that violate it, but we have instead passed them on to the
> lawyers who have filed it.
>
> === my reply ====
>> Dear Daniele,
>> In fact we did not know about the "Quickwriting" method that you have
>> pointed out to us. It strikes us as an incredible coincidence.
>> We're not interested in engaging into a legal debate, but in the development
>> of an efficient alternative to conventional keyboards on small devices.
>
> Me neither I am interested in a legal debate, I just wanted to let you
> know that your idea is not original, thus it can't be applied for
> patenting. Anyway we'll wait for your patent approval.
>
>> However, intellectual property law does apply, and copying the "8pen" does
>> violate it within the scope set by the patent previously referred to.
>> We're not dealing personally with issues that are in conflict with our
>> patent, or that violate it, but we have instead passed them on to the
>> lawyers who have filed it.
>
> Of course i won't name my program "8pen for Linux".
> I guess editing Quickwriting to use 4 zones instead of 9 would violate
> your patent too? If Quickwriting was easily configurable to change the
> number of zones, how could this be handled?
>
> ===== end =====
>
>> Would anybody care to join me on this one? We could create a message
>> or a message template and ask everyone send this message to the person
>> behind the 8pen (crowdsourcing seems to be the catchy phrase for this
>> approach...).
>>
>> Cheers,
>> Justus
>>
>
> Sure, i'm with you 110% :-)
>
> --
> Daniele
>
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