[Insight-users] Microsoft patents 'Page Up' and 'Page Down'

[Luis Ibanez]

http://news.zdnet.com/2424-9595_22-218626.html

"Microsoft has been granted a patent on 'Page Up' and 'Page Down' 
keystrokes."


By David Meyer
ZDNet.co.uk, News.com
Posted on ZDNet News: Aug 29, 2008 7:30:39 AM

<quote>

The software giant applied for the patent in 2005, and was granted it on
August 19, 2008. US patent number 7,415,666

Patent entry at the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO):
http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1%3Cbr%20%3E%3C/a%3E%20&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=7,415,666.PN.&OS=PN/7,415%3Cbr%20/%3E%20,666&RS=PN/7,415,666


describes "a method and system in a document viewer for scrolling a
substantially exact increment in a document, such as one page,
regardless of whether the zoom is such that some, all or one page is
currently being viewed".

The patent's listed 'inventors' are Timothy Sellers, Heather Grantham
and Joshua Dersch. However, Page Up and Page Down keyboard buttons have
been in existence for at least quarter of a century, as evidenced by
this image of a 1981 IBM PC keyboard.

      http://www.vintage-computer.com/images/83key.jpg

"In one implementation, pressing a Page Down or Page Up keyboard
key/button allows a user to begin at any starting vertical location
within a page, and navigate to that same location on the next or
previous page," reads the patent's summary.

"For example, if a user is viewing a page starting in a viewing area
from the middle of that page and ending at the bottom, a Page Down
command will cause the next page to be shown in the viewing area
starting at the middle of the next page and ending at the bottom of the
next page. Similar behavior occurs when there is more than one column of
pages being displayed in a row," states the summary.

Microsoft has a long history of applying for, and being granted patents
for, inventions that many argue--and can sometimes demonstrate--were
based on earlier work carried out by others, or based on a common,
self-evident idea.

One example is the company's patent on a mouse wheel that can scroll up
and down; another is its patent on double-clicking buttons. The company
received its 5,000th patent from the US Patent and Trademark Office in
March 2006, and is currently approaching the 10,000 mark.

</quote>