After the patent for rectangular devices with rounded edges, Apple gets another ridiculous intellectual property, this time for virtual page turn. We’ve seen it on a ton of tablets and e-readers and we already dread the number of lawsuits that could be generated by this.
You’re probably used to that animation of turning a page of a book when reading on an e-reader or tablet. Well, now Apple won that and this week the US Patent Office awarded the Cupertino company the patent for “display screen or portion thereof with animated graphical user interface”. The patent was filed last December and while it’s not very clear of what it implies, Apple is saying that its page turn is unique. The idea is that they’re using a special type of animation, that creates the illusion of real page turning.
You shouldn’t be surprised by this seemingly ridiculos patent, since Apple has a bunch more of those, like a patent for its music icon, which is basically a musical note or a patent for its glass staircase in Apple Stores. Regarding the lawsuits, rivals can rest easy for now, as long as their page turning animation is different from Apple’s patent.
