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

Let’s test your RQ – your rudeness quotient. On a scale of 1= No Problem and 10=Hanging at Dawn Without Benefit of a Trial, rate the following:

• You go to a business lunch and your dining companion puts a BlackBerry on the table and checks it compulsively throughout the meal.
• While you’re conducting a seminar you notice that half the attendees are staring at smartphones and some are working them with their thumbs.
• You’re out on a date and you reach out to grasp your lover’s hand, but there’s a cell phone in it.
• Your wife is discussing resort plans for your second honeymoon. She asks you something important. You ask her to repeat what she said because you were too absorbed checking fantasy baseball scores on your Palm Pre.
• The bored concertgoer beside you is checking his email during a tender pianissimo passage of your favorite symphony.

These vignettes exemplify an evolving crisis in etiquette prompted by a new generation of smartphones and other handheld communication devices. New York Times reporter Alex Williams has chronicled the challenge of holding the social fabric together while gamers, bloggers, tweeters, and email checkers succumb to the temptation, if not the compulsion, to indulge their private pursuits in public.

Obviously your RQ depends on which side of the device you’re on. “A spirited debate about etiquette has broken out” Williams writes. “Traditionalists say the use of BlackBerrys and iPhones in meetings is as gauche as ordering out for pizza. Techno-evangelists insist that to ignore real-time text messages in a need-it-yesterday world is to invite peril.” Like it or not, the field is tilting in the direction of the techno-evangelists. Williams reports that a third of some 5300 workers pulled by a job listings website said “they frequently checked e-mail in meetings.” However, out of those that do, “Nearly 20 percent said they had been castigated for poor manners regarding wireless devices.”

You may be lucky to get away with mere castigation. Employees have been fired when caught using their device frivolously. Business leaders instruct attendees to turn off all electronic devices at meetings on pain of ostracism or worse, and visitors to President Obama’s Oval Office are required to leave their BlackBerrys with his secretary (though its well known the President himself is addicted to his). Fistfights have broken out in theaters over cellphones ringing at critical moments in a performance.

And inappropriate use of a device can be fatal. A growing number of car crashes involved drivers talking on cellphones or looking at text message screens, and these practices are being banned in several states. A fatal train accident in California was traced to the engineer’s being distracted by text messages.

And concentration on the screen of your gadget instead of the eyes of your beloved is wreaking havoc in relationships and can contribute to breaking up. On the other hand, if you’re determined to break up with someone, a cell phone can come in handy. A Malaysian government official notified his wife that he was divorcing her – via cell phone. (An Islamic court overruled him, but nice try, huh?)

You can read both sides of the debate in Mind Your BlackBerry or Mind Your Manners. Then let’s review the score on our RQ quiz. How’d you do?

Richard Curtis

Every blogger owes a debt of gratitude to newspapers and magazines. This posting relies on original research and reporting performed by the New York Times.

The first thing I thought when I saw people lined up in front of the Verizon store around the corner from my office was, They’re hiring temps for Christmas sales jobs. Why else would people stand twenty deep in near-freezing temperature?

Then I remembered: today was release day for the Blackberry Storm, and Verizon is the designated exclusive retail sales outlet. (Okay, so the photo isn’t a Verizon store, but it got your attention.)

So, what’s to line up for? Well, the Storm comes with a touch screen like the iPhone’s but there the resemblance ends. The screen feels, “clickable,” says Jeff Rauschert, interactive media manager for the Flint Journal. Among the other things Rauschert likes are,

• Beautiful screen resolution
• Full-size headphone jack
• Addition of “To Go” software
• Speaker sound, clarity
• 3.2 megapixel camera with video
• Robust email and messaging
• Copy and paste out of the box

Al Sacco of CIO offers eight reasons to select the Storm over the iPhone:

•Stereo Bluetooth
•Removable battery
•Expandable memory
•Digital camera, video recording
•Storm works as a tethered modem
•Touch screen provides tactile feedback
•Cut-and-paste
•Multitasking champ

Is the Storm worth losing three fingers to frostbite? Read Sacco’s analysis and decide for yourself. And check out this video.

RC