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Mike on firsts
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    0 starsmike | Shared With: Everyone - May 31 2008 | microsoft, patents, firsts, steve ballmer
    Microsoft's First Patent?

    Searching the Google Patent database, it appears that this was the first patent FILED (March 1985) and ISSUED (May 1986) to Microsoft.

    Among the inventors - Steve Ballmer!

    The patent covers the packaging Microsoft used in some of their earlier products - a clam-shell acrylic box that would hinge open to become a stand for the manual that was shipped with the software.

    I still have some of these in my basement.

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  • mike
    May 22 2008

    My patent (assigned to Microsoft) on using GPS data to augment a web browser request. This patent took 6 years(!) to issue (filed in 1998 and issued in 2004).

    I'm not aware of any products using this now. The invention uses a new HTTP request header to send the user's GPS location. A GPS-aware server, can then respond with geo-targeted results AND provide a geo-graphic "expiration" zone (the comapatible browser will re-fresh automatically when the user leaves the valid zone).

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