Apple Gets a Numbers Patent

by Michael on August 25, 2011

Numbers patent

Patently Apple has news that Apple has won a patent regarding Numbers.

A method for associating an object with a data source, comprising: receiving an indication of a selection of an option to paste in a first document an object or a copy of an object cut or copied from a second document; determining a data source identifier associated with the object; and associating the object with a corresponding data source such that when the object is pasted into the first document the object is automatically associated with a data source included in the first document; wherein the data source with which the object is associated comprises: a data source having the data source identifier included in a current paste board that is concurrently pasted into the first document with the object if a data source having the data source identifier exists in the current paste board; an existing data source having the data source identifier included in the first document if a data source having the data source identifier does not exist in the current paste board and if a data source having the data source identifier exists in the first document; or an automatically generated new data source added to the first document that is populated with data extracted from the object if a data source having the data source identifier does not exist in the current paste board and if a data source having the data source identifier does not already exist in the first document.

Clear? I thought so.

Patent number 8,006,194 was originally filed in August 2007 and lists Peter Berger, Peter Rapp, Michael Trent, Christopher Weeldreyer as inventors.

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