Patents

Several patents came from these projects which have been referenced hundreds of times by subsequent patents and listed as prior art during litigation by the major Smartphone companies.

• Based on the development of the 1992 technology demo:
  • 5537608 - Personal Communicator apparatus
• Based on the 1993-1994 development of Simon:
  • 5422656 - Personal Communicator having improved contrast control for a liquid crystal touch sensitive display
  • 5561705 - Apparatus for auto dialing telephone numbers and DTMF tones in a personal communication device
  • 5568536 - Selective reconfiguration method and apparatus in a multiple application personal communications device
  • 5590373 - Field programming apparatus and method for updating programs in a personal communications device
  • 5615384 - Personal communicator having improved zoom and pan functions for editing information on touch sensitive display
  • 5619684 - Method and apparatus for consistent user interface in a multiple application personal communications device¹
  • 5787365 - Apparatus for combining cellular telephone ring signals and PSTN ring signals
  • 5708804 - Apparatus and method therefor of intelligently searching for information in a personal communications device
  • 5815142 - Apparatus and method for marking text on a display screen in a personal communications device
  • U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/145,914, filed Nov. 1, 1993, by David J. Allard, et al., entitled “Personal Communicator Having Collapsible Keyboard for Editing Information on Small Touch Screen Display”, now abandoned

Footnotes

1: Regarding patent 5,619,684 this was a key feature of the Simon because Simon applications automatically detected the change of these indicator bit combinations to display User screens which matched the presence (or absence) of the PSTN connector cable. This was a key feature because these applications could be used over a landline when cellular service was unavailable or too costly. This was also a work around of an existing non-IBM patent that the team became aware of. The “other” patent switched between cellular and PSTN based on a soft bit (for example by user selection). By making the switch responsive to the hardware connector, the Simon team a) avoided the other patent, and b) made it more user friendly. Also of interest, this patent showed how the user interface could automatically change when a keyboard or other hardware was externally attached, not just a PSTN phone connection.

2: The inventors in most Simon patents were intentionally listed in alphabetical order, as was a standard at IBM at the time. The order did not indicate which inventor(s) were primary contributors.