The patent is quite specific, it relates to the icons on the dock resizing when the mouse pointer is near, which was a really neat effect back in 1999 or whenever it was first shown. AmiDock doesn't do that, so it is perfectly fine. I don't think that Apple would care though, they just want to protect themselves against copycat clones.
The patent includes the resizing algorithm and other concise behaviours that together make up the patent.
There are at least 3 good made Windows XP/Vista docks that have animated and resizing icons just as like as the dock in MacOS X...
http://klauskjeldsen.dk/2007/12/21/mac-os-x-dock-clones-for-windows-xpvista/Also there are at least 5 "almost" good or at least decent docks for Linux that do the same trick as the one in MacOS.
http://www.internetling.com/2008/03/24/linux-docks-5-mac-os-x-docks-for-ubuntu-and-other-linux-distros/As long as I know, about Patent Laws, when you request for a patent then the Patent is "in a stall" for some time before being definitevly accepted...
This is called PATENT PENDING...
This stall time is used by the patent office to check for prior art that null and voids any further patent claim or also to check if the technology is already SPREADED all around, and thus the patent could not cover what is in public domain...
If you people in USA were were smart, then mail the Patent Office showing that there are already clones of Animated Dock existing for various operating systems before Apple requested the patent...
Post them some good screenshots, and site links of existing clones... :rtfm:
This fact make automatically VOID any patent claimed by Apple, and the patent will be rejected...
Then the Apple could request another patent covering its own DOCK-ICON-MAGNIFY ALGORYTHM, but just only the algorythm, and not the dock itself...
If the Apple wanted to avoid that other people had created its own icon-magnify docks, then they should had being enough smart to patent it BEFORE launching MacOS X, and not after all the world copied this little dock eyecandy... :roll:
Do you know that in the eighties the IBM not patented the assembling structure of computer as case and components of the PC-XT, and this originated the phenomenon of CHINESE PC CLONES, that started all the market of the PeeCees?
Poor IBM... They patented the name PC-XT and they forgot to patent the square case with drive bays, slots for cards and connectors for peripherals... :roll: :-D :-P :lol: :lol: :lol:
BTW, did you know that Apple copied "Think Different" motto from Bang&Olufsen? :-P
