Does Apple owe Jim McKeeth money?
Jim McKeeth, the RemObjects evangelist who runs delphi.org, was a coworker of mine before he left for RO. Another coworker just pointed me to a couple articles that mention his name.
Slide to unlock is not Apple’s patent
Smartphone Wars: Micron’s Slide-to-Unlock Patent
Apparently the patent office essentially just ruled that the infamous “slide to unlock” patent that Apple has been beating Samsung and other companies that make Android devices over the head with is actually invalid, because another company, Micron PC, invented it several years before Apple did. And the name associated with Micron’s patent is Jim McKeeth.
Of course, when something like this happens, you wonder if it’s the same guy or not. Sometimes people have the same name, you know. But I did some checking, and it appears that he did used to work at Micron.
So, does Apple owe Jim McKeeth money for this bogus “innovation” that they’ve been extorting money from all sorts of smartphone companies over? It would be deliciously ironic if they did.
Jim, if you’re reading this, would you mind leaving a comment on the subject?