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One of the subjects I postponed to write about was Intellectual Property (IP). But I ran across this news that Microsoft is granted the patent for the page up and page down function buttons on your keyboard. The patent is granted August the 19th, this year. This triggered me to write about it today.

So what are we dealing with right now?

Microsoft is granted the patent for the keys on your keyboard for a function that we already know for 25 years. So the invention is 25 years old, known by almost all computer users. Besides the function on the keyboard the patent is licensed for several usages. The example given:

“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,”

So besides the keys they also patented the functions related to them.

Patent offices exist to register ownership for intellectual property. It is there to regulate and prove ownership for inventions and property in the public domain. The patent offices should look after their customers and their patents, but it needs to be in favor of protecting the public domain.

At the moment patenting offices aren’t looking after the public domain anymore. They’re merely satisfying their customers that are paying the excessive fees for the patents. For example Microsoft owned 5.000 patents in 2006 already, and they’re rapidly approaching number 10.000. In the example we see today with Microsoft there is not only an invention patented, also a lot of the related functions are registered with that patent.

By patenting all these ‘inventions’ and processes the patent office is not helping the public domain. By granting patents of this kind the public domain is excluded from accessing something they already know. As in this case the keys and functions already exist in the public domain, therefore I think it should not be patented.

I’m really eager for discussion on these subjects. Drop a comment to let me know what you think.

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