I believe that is a design patent. Its given for a specific design such as
their windows icon and not for the icon concept.
Dave
-----Original Message-----
From: Daniel McCarty <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Thursday, March 11, 1999 9:04 AM
Subject: Re: copyright??
>Steve Sabram wrote:
>>
>> The running cost of a patent filing professionally is running in the sum
of
>> $20K now for domestic and international filings. It can be done for less
if
>> you want to put more personal time into it though. Also, there was a
ruling
>> about five years ago stating that pure software concepts such as
scrolling text
>> in a window or a push button cannot be patented since it is not directly
>> connected to a process or tangible invention (i.e. hardware). This was
done
>> so guys like us can write something, claim copyright and not fear patent
>> infringement from just writing code. Thank you AEA!
>
> Patent D403,673: "Computer icon for a screen." Microsoft succeeds
>patenting the computer icon. (No small feat--it took them 7 people
>to come up with the patent.)
>
>-Daniel.
>
> (Posting this late is kind of like pouring fuel on the ashes. I
>would've posted this sooner but I only just now found the patent
>number.)
>
>
>
>
