Microsoft and the "Pg Up/Pg Dn" Patent Squabble

Kevin Maney reveals: Microsoft got flak on the Web when GigaOm discovered a patent granted to Microsoft that seems to say Microsoft owns the invention of the "Pg Up" and "Pg Dn" function on just about every computer. If true, such a patent would be yet the latest evidence that the U.S. patent systems is ridiculously broken.

Yet it also seemed like something wasn't quite right. Microsoft applied for the patent in 2005 -- about 100 years after Pg Up and Pg Dn were invented. Patenting the function now would be like patenting lawn chairs or coffee cup handles. So I asked Microsoft. Spokeswoman Karin Rosain provided me with an explanation, which leaves me not entirely understanding exactly what Microsoft DID patent.

First off, for sure, Microsoft is not trying to patent the "page up/page down" function on a keyboard. Instead, the company's technologists and patent attorneys (and now the USPTO) believe they've come up with a way to improve overall user experience.

A reading of the entire patent, particularly the claims, shows that this patent does not purport to broadly cover general "page up/page down" functionality.  What happens a lot of times is that someone will read the abstract and not the entire patent, thus the context is overlooked.  The "page up/page down" function was called out as a familiar way to understand how the innovation works, but it is certainly not relegated to or restrictive of that one area.

Confirming with Microsoft's patent team, this patent does describe specific, new techniques for incrementally navigating through paginated content.  For example, it includes a particular technique of calculating a point offset from the top, which offset is used to permit scrolling in a whole-page increment to a another page displayed at the same offset.