From the response filed today:


II. MICROSOFT PRESENTS AN INCORRECT
BACKGROUND FOR THE ‘744 PATENT
The discussion in Microsoft’s brief regarding the WebOS product, although
misplaced, shows that Microsoft fails to appreciate just what the invention of the ‘744
patent is and how it differs from anything that preceded it. The prior art WebOS product is
an example of procedural programming while the present invention is an advance on
conventional object oriented programming developed a long time after the appearance of
procedural programming.
Procedural programming, of which WebOS is an example, appeared in the 1950’s
along with the appearance of computers. It is a rigorous approach to programming where
the programmer writes the programming code in sequential steps, including subroutines
that perform some function or provide some needed information. This type of
programming proved unusable in many modern applications because as more people
worked on a procedural program the sequence of steps became too long and
unmanageable.
In the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, programmers developed a new way of
programming called object oriented programming. This type of programming allowed
programmers to separate the development process into modules called “objects” that
interfaced with each other to provide the overall program. The program also could reuse
the objects at various points in the program. But in this type of programming, the
programmer still had to define the interface between a given object and the rest of the3
program. The programmer had to pass any variables that the object used or needed; and
it had to pass them in a pre-determined order.
The invention of the ‘744 patent, as stated in Vertical’s opening brief, is an
important advance in object oriented programming. It provides a smart connection or
interface between an object and the rest of the program. The program need not pass any
parameters that the object needs, because the object will determine those parameters on
its own by using available information that it can obtain. If the programmer passes the
parameters through the interface, an arbitrary object will use them; if he does not, it will
determine them on its own with available information.
Microsoft seeks to improperly connect the WebOS product with the ‘744 patent by
arguing that FIG. 5 of the ‘744 patent is “virtually identical” to an old WebOS diagram on
another company’s website and by arguing that FIG. 5 shows an embodiment of the
invention of the ‘744 patent. cont'd