Apple granted dock patent
After a 9-year wait
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9 October 2008 9:17 GMT / By Amy-Mae Elliott
Apple, with CEO Steve Jobs credited as the inventor, has been awarded a patent for the Mac operating system's "dock", an instantly recognisable feature of the software.
The United States Patent and Trademark Office granted the Mac maker patent number 7,434,177 titled "User interface for providing consolidation and access".
In OS X, the dock features heavily in the operating system's user interface, described as a centralised launch pad for applications, documents and files.
Apple now has the exclusive right to prevent others from making, using, selling, or otherwise employing replicas of the technology in their own products for 20 years from now.
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