Patent attorneys are the ticks of the Digital Age.  After quietly applying for a patent they set up their nest on a tree branch and patiently wait – sometimes for years – until a fat cat walks underneath their perch. Then they drop on their victim’s neck and drain its blood.

Over the years we’ve seen many instances of such ambushes. Remember the outfit that sued Amazon for violating its patent on one-click ordering online? And the suit over the BlackBerry that resulted in a $612.5 million settlement? And we recently reported on a patent filed by Amazon – four years ago but never disclosed until now – for a device that sounds exactly like the Nook e-reading device manufactured by Amazon’s rival Barnes & Noble.

And now comes news of a patent application by Microsoft – #20100175018 if you must know – for something most of us think is as free as the air we breathe. Here’s the description, taken from the filing:

A page-turning gesture directed to a displayed page is recognized. Responsive to such recognition, a virtual page turn is displayed on the touch display… The virtual page turn curls a lifted portion of the page to progressively reveal a back side of the page while progressively revealing a front side of a subsequent page… A page-flipping gesture quickly flips two or more pages.

Yes, it’s the good old-fashioned touch-screen virtual page-turn, the one you use to “turn” the page on such e-reading platforms as the iPad, Stanza and Android. This is according to Rik Myslewski of The Register®. But he is skeptical that Microsoft would take action against those platforms.

Microsoft’s patent breaks new ground with a couple of features.  One is the ability to flip a lot of pages at once (y0u do it by dragging your finger down the right margin, Myslewski tells us.)  The other is extraordinary. “In discussing input methods, the filing notes that ‘sources other than fingers may be used to execute a page-turning gesture.’ Noses? Elbows? If not noses and elbows – what?  We invite you to submit photos (suitable for this family publication) of yourself turning the page of your ebook reader with something other than your finger.

Read Microsoft seeks patent on ebook page flip

Richard Curtis