It’s interesting that everything in the world of tech somehow ends up patented, especially everyday objects which are generally considered open-source in terms of patent-ability. I recently hit upon this article which hit me with the news that Microsoft have somehow managed to patent the Page Up and Down keys. All this time I’ve been naively thinking of those keys as simply part of my daily life, available on all normal OS’ until now I’m told I’m pressing on two Microsoft patents to scroll up and down the PDF syllabus for AS computing. Another (failed, I’m glad to say) example is Dell’s attempt to patent cloud computing, a concept which has been around since forever and also something which has such fuzzy legal boundaries that it may be difficult even to define the patent concretely.
In my personal opinion tech companies are grabbing at every last chance they can get to filter some money into their coffers, however ridiculous the patent they need to procure may sound, and I believe this patenting culture will prove a severe hindrance to technological advances through lack of communication and complete information.
Posted by arctanb 
Bryant's Blog 