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Apple的Progress Bar……新穎性在什麼地方?
這件就是Apple剛在3月22日獲證的美國專利US 9,292,177「Progress Bar with Feature Availability Indicator」。簡單翻譯成中文就是「具特點顯示功能的下載進度條」。下載進度條指的是我們在下載檔案時，顯示進度的條狀圖形（如圖1）。你可能會覺得很奇怪：這種不是我們過去十幾、二十年一直在使用的技術？為什麼可以申請專利呢？新穎性在那裡？
Claim 1. A method comprising: at a computing device with a display: displaying, on the display, a progress bar that visually displays a completion status indicator for a task being performed by an application, the completion status indicator representing a completion status for the task; and, while performing the task: determining a current speed at which the task is being performed; determining a type of animation associated with the current speed; detecting a user interaction with the progress bar; and, in response to detecting the user interaction with the progress bar, displaying a secondary indicator that modifies the visual appearance of the progress bar, wherein the secondary indicator includes the determined animation.
Claim 3. A computing device, comprising: a display; a processor; memory; and one or more programs, wherein the one or more programs are stored in the memory and configured to be executed by the processor, the one or more programs including instructions for: displaying, on the display, a progress bar that visually displays a completion status indicator for a task being performed by an application, the completion status indicator representing a completion status for the task; and, while performing the task: determining a current speed at which the task is being performed; determining a type of animation associated with the current speed; detecting a user interaction with the progress bar; and, in response to detecting the user interaction with the progress bar, displaying a secondary indicator that modifies the visual appearance of the progress bar, wherein the secondary indicator includes the determined animation.
Claim 5. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing one or more programs, the one or more programs comprising instructions, which when executed by a computing device with a display, cause the computing device to: display, on the display, a progress bar that visually displays a completion status indicator for a task being performed by an application, the completion status indicator representing a completion status for the task; and, while performing the task: determine a current speed at which the task is being performed; determine a type of animation associated with the current speed; detect a user interaction with the progress bar; and, in response to detecting the user interaction with the progress bar, display a secondary indicator that modifies the visual appearance of the progress bar, wherein the secondary indicator includes the determined animation.
沒錯，Apple申請專利的「progress bar」就是我們日常用電腦常見的「下載進度條」，應該是前案一堆，但，審查委員究竟是看到什麼不一樣的地方呢？於是筆者也開始從請求項找不一樣的地方 － 最後找到的是黃色螢光筆的一行字「detecting the user interaction with the progress bar」，這一點好像蠻新鮮的，因為「使用」Progress bar那麼久，從來沒跟它有什麼互動，只會對它說：「快一點快一點」。
比對審查委員的審查意見，果然這就是這件發明的最重要的「可專利性」。審查意見指出：「Claims 1, 3, 5 are allowed because the examiner was unable to find prior art which specially teaches “in response to detecting the user interaction with the progress bar, displaying a secondary indicator that modifies the visual appearance of the progress, wherein the secondary indicator includes the determined animation”」
