SillyDog701

[goGecko]

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=18336

The article asserts that Microsoft filed a patent for tabbed browsing back in 1997. It wouldn't be good if they charged a royalty to Netscape/Mozilla/Firefox for using the feature.

However, I don't think that Microsoft seriously intends to use their patent. They are already busy enough with anti-trust legal work and it would really makes them look like a monopoly if they finish off the remaining Netscape/Mozilla browser development.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.2) Gecko/20040804 Netscape/7.2 (ax)

[DJGM]

Errr, not quite . . .

In March 1997 the software giant showed up at the patent office with the invention of
discoverability and navigation of hyperlinks via tabs. In other words, when a computer
user uses the Tab key to move the focus from one hyperlink to another on a webpage
opened in a browser, the use of that function is now owned by Microsoft.

Microsoft don't have any patents on the "tabbed browsing" functionality pioneered by pretty much
every other browser than Internet Explorer. What Microsoft do have a patent on, is navigating
between links on webpages using the TAB key on the keyboard, which is entirely different.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7) Gecko/20040803 Firefox/0.9.3

[goGecko]

Interesting. I was thinking of this quote from the article:

Much to the shock of Firefox and Mozarella users everywhere, it seems that Vole owns the patent for tab based browsing.

However, I do see your point. The tab key is the directly listed item, but it is ambiguous. Maybe I should drop an e-mail to the author for clarification....

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.2) Gecko/20040804 Netscape/7.2 (ax)

[David Wonn]

What Microsoft do have a patent on, is navigating
between links on webpages using the TAB key on the keyboard, which is entirely different.

Even if that's the case, they hardly have any right to claim that either, as Lynx has used the tab key this way long before IE ever existed. Heck, even the line-mode telnet-based clients I used to "surf" what I thought was the Internet in the mid-1990s did this to some extent.

UserAgent: Mozilla/4.78 [en]C-CCK-MCD (Windows NT 5.0; U)

[Josh]

Links, a text based browser that supports tables, supports TAB key link navigation.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X Mach-O; en-US; rv:1.7.2) Gecko/20040803

[DJGM]

So, this patent is effectively invalid, due to various examples of "prior art" it seems . . .

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.2) Gecko/20040804 Netscape/7.2 - DJGM.co.uk (ax)

[David Wonn]

Links, a text based browser that supports tables, supports TAB key link navigation.

I don't know about the version you have (perhaps the Mac version), but the cygwin port of Links I use on Windows does not use the Tab key this way. (This is one of my few gripes about Links.) Instead, it only uses the Tab key on frames sites to navigate between frames. I tend to prefer the ports of Lynx, partially due to how they handle the tab key (among other things.)

UserAgent: Mozilla/4.78 [en]C-CCK-MCD (Windows NT 5.0; U)