Apple Granted Patent for: Touchscreen Device, Method, and GUI for Customizing Display of Content Category Icons

Apple has been granted a patent today for their invention relating to electronic devices with touchscreen displays, and more particularly, to electronic devices that apply heuristics to detected user gestures on a touch screen display to determine commands. This is the same "Technical Field" overview that is found on Apple's reinstated "Steve Jobs" granted patent 7,479,949 (the '949 patent).

The body of Apple's newly granted patent is basically identical to the '949 patent in that it covers the design and makeup of a touchscreen device that contain the following features: instant messaging; camera; image management; video player; weather widgets; stock widgets or "icons;" telephone; creating a conference call; managing a conference call; adding a caller during a conference call; email; browser; music and video player; notes application; calendar; clock; map application; general touchscreen/system UI features; cursor; vertical & horizontal bars; vertical bar for a list of items; vertical bar for an electric document; gestures; heuristics; keyboards; and settings.

Both of Apple's granted patents cover the very same patent "Abstract" which states: "A computer-implemented method for use in conjunction with a computing device with a touch screen display comprises: detecting one or more finger contacts with the touch screen display, applying one or more heuristics to the one or more finger contacts to determine a command for the device, and processing the command. The one or more heuristics comprise: a heuristic for determining that the one or more finger contacts correspond to a one-dimensional vertical screen scrolling command, a heuristic for determining that the one or more finger contacts correspond to a two-dimensional screen translation command, and a heuristic for determining that the one or more finger contacts correspond to a command to transition from displaying a respective item in a set of items to displaying a next item in the set of items."

The Main Differences between the Two Patents

The main differences between the two patents rest in the patent claims. The '949 patent contains 20 patent claims whereas the current 8,564,544 patent covers only 8. While the two cover a "computing device," the contexts greatly differ. Additionally, the newly granted patent introduces two new fronts which Apple wished to protect that cover "A Non-Transitory Computer Readable Storage Medium," and "A Graphical User Interface." The three major differences in the claims are presented below for review. Considering that this could very likely be used in future litigation against any of Apple's competitors, we wanted you to be aware of what is different from the '949 patent and what is important to notice. 

CLAIM 3: A Computing Device

A computing device, comprising: a touch screen display; one or more processors; memory; and a program, wherein the program is stored in the memory and configured to be executed by the one or more processors, the program including instructions for: concurrently displaying, in a first area of the display: a first set of user-selected content category icons for displaying lists of content from corresponding content categories in a second area of the display distinct from the first area of the display, and a display-more-categories icon for displaying icons for additional content categories, wherein: the first set of user-selected content category icons includes a first content category icon at a first location in the first area of the display, and, while in a normal-operation mode, selection of the first content category icon is operable to cause display of a list of content corresponding to the first content category icon in the second area of the display while concurrent display of at least the first content category icon and the display-more-categories icon in the first area of the display is maintained; while in a configuration mode, distinct from the normal-operation mode, for configuring which content category icons are displayed in the first area of the display: displaying, in the second area of the display a plurality of candidate content category icons corresponding to content categories, wherein the plurality of candidate content category icons include one or more content category icons not included in the first set of user-selected content category icons including a second content category icon; detecting a finger gesture with the touch screen display; and in response to detecting the finger gesture: replacing, at the first location in the first area of the display, the first content category icon with the second content category icon, wherein the second content category icon corresponds to a content category selected from the group consisting of playlists, artists, songs, videos, albums, audiobooks, compilations, composers, genres and podcasts; and maintaining, in the first area of the display, the display-more-categories icon and icons from the first set of user-selected content category icons other than the first content category icon.

CLAIM 5: A Non-Transitory Computer Readable Storage Medium

A non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing one or more programs, the one or more programs comprising instructions, which when executed by a portable electronic device with a touch screen display, cause the device to: concurrently display, in a first area of the display: a first set of user-selected content category icons for displaying lists of content from corresponding content categories in a second area of the display distinct from the first area of the display, and a display-more-categories icon for displaying icons for additional content categories, wherein: the first set of user-selected content category icons includes a first content category icon at a first location in the first area of the display, and, while in a normal-operation mode, selection of the first content category icon is operable to cause display of a list of content corresponding to the first content category icon in the second area of the display while concurrent display of at least the first content category icon and the display-more-categories icon in the first area of the display is maintained; while in a configuration mode, distinct from the normal-operation mode, for configuring which content category icons are displayed in the first area of the display: display, in the second area of the display a plurality of candidate content category icons corresponding to content categories, wherein the plurality of candidate content category icons include one or more content category icons not included in the first set of user-selected content category icons including a second content category icon; detect a finger gesture with the touch screen display; and in response to detecting the finger gesture: replace, at the first location in the first area of the display, the first content category icon with the second content category icon, wherein the second content category icon corresponds to a content category selected from the group consisting of playlists, artists, songs, videos, albums, audiobooks, compilations, composers, genres and podcasts; and maintain, in the first area of the display, the display-more-categories icon and icons from the first set of user-selected content category icons other than the first content category icon.

CLAIM 7: A Graphical User Interface

A graphical user interface on a computing device with a touch screen display, a memory, and one or more processors to execute one or more programs stored in the memory, the graphical user interface comprising: a first area of the display and a second area of the display distinct from the first area of the display, wherein: the first area of the display includes a first set of user-selected content category icons for displaying lists of content from corresponding content categories and a display-more-categories icon for displaying icons for additional content categories, wherein the first set of user-selected content category icons includes a first content category icon at a first location in the first area of the display, while in a normal-operation mode, selection of the first content category icon is operable to cause display of a list of content corresponding to the first content category icon in the second area of the display while concurrent display of at least the first content category icon and the display-more-categories icon in the first area of the display is maintained, and while in a configuration mode, distinct from the normal-operation mode, for configuring which content category icons are displayed in the first area of the display: the second area of the display includes a plurality of candidate content category icons corresponding to content categories, wherein the plurality of candidate content category icons include one or more content category icons not included in the first set of user-selected content category icons including a second content category icon; a finger gesture is detected with the touch screen display; and in response to detecting the finger gesture: the first content category icon is replaced at the first location in the first area of the display with the second content category icon, wherein the second content category icon corresponds to a content category selected from the group consisting of playlists, artists, songs, videos, albums, audiobooks, compilations, composers, genres and podcasts; and the display-more-categories icon and icons from the first set of user-selected content category icons other than the first content category icon are maintained in the first area of the display.

Inventors

The inventors listed on this key patent include the late, great co-founder of Apple, Steven Jobs and his team members/engineers noted below:

Forstall; Scott (Mountain View, CA), Christie; Greg (San Jose, CA), Lemay; Stephen O. (San Francisco, CA), Herz; Scott (Santa Clara, CA), Van Os; Marcel (San Francisco, CA), Ording; Bas (San Francisco, CA), Novick; Gregory (Santa Clara, CA), Westerman; Wayne C. (San Francisco, CA), Chaudhri; Imran (San Francisco, CA), Coffman; Patrick Lee (Menlo Park, CA), Kocienda; Kenneth (Sunnyvale, CA), Ganatra; Nitin K. (San Jose, CA), Anzures; Freddy Allen (San Francisco, CA), Wyld; Jeremy A. (San Jose, CA), Bush; Jeffrey (San Jose, CA), Matas; Michael (San Francisco, CA), Marcos; Paul D. (Los Altos, CA), Pisula; Charles J. (San Jose, CA), King; Virgil Scott (Mountain View, CA), Blumenberg; Chris (San Francisco, CA), Tolmasky; Francisco Ryan (Cupertino, CA), Williamson; Richard (Los Gatos, CA), Boule; Andre M. J. (Sunnyvale, CA), Lamiraux; Henri C. (San Carlos, CA)

Apple's granted patent 8,564,544 was originally filed in Q3 2007 and published today by the US Patent and Trademark Office. To review and compare today's granted patent claims and details to that of the '949 patent, see Apple's patent.

Side Note

The two Steve Jobs related patents are powerful. One of the reasons that Steve Jobs wanted to wage thermonuclear war against Google and those supporting Android, was that without Eric Schmidt being trusted on Apple's board and being so close to Steve's vision for iOS, Google's Android team would have never understood the priorities to take with their new OS. They wouldn't have known the key apps, the overall marketing approach and the key attributes that would make the reinvention of the mobile phone so revolutionary. Without such guidance, Google wouldn't have known how to design and direct their Android project to market as quickly as it did to compete against iOS.  

So while these two patents bearing the name of Steve Jobs are legally important, they're also a reminder to the Apple community that Steve's passion to resurrect Apple from the ashes was powered by the revolutionary iPhone and the iDevices that followed. It's also a reminder that these key patents bearing Steve's name will assist Apple in making sure that copycat designers like Samsung will pay for their blind infringements of their intellectual property - and hopefully for a very long time to come. 

Patently Apple presents only a brief summary of granted patents with associated graphics for journalistic news purposes as each Granted Patent is revealed by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office. Readers are cautioned that the full text of any Granted Patent should be read in its entirety for full details. About Comments: Patently Apple reserves the right to post, dismiss or edit comments.