Microsoft wins Live Tile challenge against patent troll
1 min. read
Updated on
Share this article
Improve this guide
Read our disclosure page to find out how can you help MSPoweruser sustain the editorial team Read more
Way back in 2012 a notorious patent troll Surfcast started litigation against Microsoft, claiming the Live Tile interface of Windows Phone and Windows 8 infringed their patent for a “System and Method for Simultaneous Display of Multiple Information Sources.”
That patent dates to 2000 and looks a lot more like a Windows 1.0 style grid of windows rather than the Live Tile interface we know and love.
Fortunately the court agreed, with Law360 reporting that the The Patent Trial and Appeal Board has ruled that SurfCast Inc.’s graphical user interface patent is invalid.
All 52 claims of SurfCast’s patent, which covers a computer display that organizes content from a variety of sources into a grid of tiles that is constantly updated, were classed as invalid due to being obvious or anticipated in view of a host of references, the board said in a final verdict.
Hopefully Surfcast and its high profile backers, which includes former IBM executives and bankers, can now return to the underside of the bridge where they came from.
