Apple seeks patent on Operating System Advertising

 A pending non-provisional utility patent application assigned to Apple Computer published. This application is titled Advertisement in Operating System, and covers an operating system that is capable of displaying a variety of advertisements to users. While it is difficult to know the purpose and strategy behind a patent application, the attorneys at Fish and Richardson in Minneapolis, Minnesota, who drafted and filed the patent application certainly did a very good job describing just about every conceivable feature and alternative that could coincide with the displaying of advertisements to users of an operating system. The patent application explains the basics of the invention as follows (with reference numerals removed throughout when the patent application is quoted to facilitate reading):

Using an operating system in the version it disables functionality not only will you need to click to continue, but you are going to have to stop doing whatever it is that you are doing and pay attention to the advertisement! With respect to the version of the invention where you will not be able to turn off and otherwise escape the advertisement, and will need to actively do something to verify that you are listening and watching, the patent application explains.

Perhaps this is a way to extract additional payments from individuals who will pay almost anything not to have their computing sessions interrupted by such invasive commercial forces. 

Moreover this “innovation” is not limited to computer operating systems. The patent application makes reference to cell phones as well as computers. 

The advertisement which the patent application is talking about may include, for example, a rectangular banner ad, an audio ad, a video clip, an image file, executable code, embedded information, or any other media, content, or interactive advertisement. While the advertisements are shown to reside with the advertiser’s system, the advertisements also can be stored in the advertising management system, or stored with the ad content in the computer device. The user also may manually activate an advertisement presentation. As an example, a user may select the “Watch Ads Now” menu item to instantly begin the advertisement presentation. If the user selects this menu item prior to a scheduled time of the presentation, the user may receive time extensions. 

Who knows whether Apple has any desire to integrate such an annoying “innovation” into their operating systems. The company’s success at times might even be attributable to such superior technology that even bad business decisions couldn’t kill the company, or maybe best described by the saying — even a blind squirrel finds a nut every once in a while.