Should patents be device or task specific?
I was reading The Register's coverage of a talk given by Creative CEO Sim Wong Hoo who claims that implementations of side-scrolling hierarchical menus such as those found on Apple's iPods are infringing on his company's recently awarded patent (US patent 6,928,433). Apparently, the first appearance of such a user interface showed up on one of Creative's early generation MP3 players in 2000.