IP Innovation L.L.C. and Technology Licensing Corporation (collectively, "Plaintiffs") have brought a patent-infringement action against Red Hat, Inc., and Novell, Inc., alleging infringement of U.S. Patent Numbers 5,072,412; 5,533,183; and 5,394,521. The patents concern a user interface that has multiple workspaces. The Plaintiffs' complaint identifies as accused products "Red Hat Linux system," the "Novell Suse Linux Enterprise Desktop," and the "Novell Suse Linux Enterprise Server."
UPDATE: THESE THREE PATENTS WERE INVALIDATED BY THE U.S. DISTRICT COURT, EASTERN DISTRICT OF TEXAS, ON APRIL 30, 2010, IN THE ABOVE REFERENCED ACTION.
UPDATE: THESE THREE PATENTS WERE INVALIDATED BY THE U.S. DISTRICT COURT, EASTERN DISTRICT OF TEXAS, ON APRIL 30, 2010, IN THE ABOVE REFERENCED ACTION.
Last updated: 2 months ago
Summary / Description
| Summary / Description | X version 1 was released in May 1984. It included independent multiple workspaces. DEC made version 6 available on their MicroVAX in 1985. DEC made X version 9 available on their VAXstation-II machines in 1985. Several more-or-less public releases of version 10 were made in January/February 1986. |
Basic Information
| Type of Prior Art | Online Publication |
| URL | http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index... |
| Author/Creator | Wikipedia contributors |
| Title | X Window System |
| Publication Date | February 9, 1985 |
| Publisher | Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia |
| Directions to Document Location | |
| Additional Information | |
Notes / To Do
| Notes | Could be handy to have direct quotation of implementation details supporting various dependent claims, such as claims 3, 4, and 5, and similar subsequent claims. |
Excerpt
[...]
Scheifler, Gettys and Ron Newman set to work and X progressed rapidly. They released Version 6 in January 1985. DEC, then preparing to release its first Ultrix workstation, judged X the only windowing system likely to become available in time. DEC engineers ported X6 to DEC's QVSS display on MicroVAX.
In the second quarter of 1985 X acquired color support to function in the DEC VAXstation-II/GPX, forming what became version 9.
A group at Brown University ported version 9 to the IBM RT/PC, but problems with reading unaligned data on the RT forced an incompatible protocol change, leading to version 10 in late 1985. By 1986, outside organizations had started asking for X. The release of X10R2 took place in January 1986; that of X10R3 in February 1986. Although MIT had licensed X6 to some outside groups for a fee, it decided at this time to license X10R3 and future versions under what became known as the MIT License, intending to popularize X further and in return, hoping that many more applications would become available. X10R3 became the first version to achieve wide deployment, with both DEC and Hewlett-Packard releasing products based on it. Other groups ported X10 to Apollo and to Sun workstations and even to the IBM PC/AT. Demonstrations of the first commercial application for X (a mechanical computer-aided engineering system from Cognition Inc. that ran on VAXes and displayed on PCs running an X server) took place at the Autofact trade show at that time. The last version of X10, X10R4, appeared in December 1986.
[...]
Relevance
Claims
User interface with mulitple workspaces
A system comprising:
a display;
first and second workspace data structures relating respectively to first and second workspaces that can be presented on the display; each of the first and second workspaces including a respective set of display objects; each of the display objects being perceptible as a distinct, coherent set of display features; the display objects of each respective set being perceptible as having spatial positions relative to each other when the respective workspace is presented on the display;
display object means for generating first and second display objects; the first workspace data structure being linked to the display object means so that the first display object is in the respective set of display objects of the first workspace; the second workspace data structure being linked to the display object means so that the second display object is in the respective set of display objects of the second workspace; and
control means for accessing the first workspace data structure to cause the display to present the first workspace including the first display object; the control means further being for accessing the second workspace data structure to cause the display to present the second workspace including the second display object; the display object means generating the first and second display objects so that the second display object is perceptible as the same tool as the first display object when the second workspace is presented after the first workspace.
Relevance
X has always allowed multiple applications to each present a window to the user. Most applications have allowed full-screening, especially terminal emulators, so that the somewhat crippling either-or nature of this claim can be met by the earliest available applications running through X. Most of the following dependent claims are intrinsic to a windowing provider and could be directly addressed by mining the implementation details of X.
X is also relevant to the subsequent independent claims as well.
X has always allowed multiple applications to each present a window to the user. Most applications have allowed full-screening, especially terminal emulators, so that the somewhat crippling either-or nature of this claim can be met by the earliest available applications running through X. Most of the following dependent claims are intrinsic to a windowing provider and could be directly addressed by mining the implementation details of X.
X is also relevant to the subsequent independent claims as well.
Claim Chart
All


