Twitter is applying to patent the widely-used "Pull to Refresh" technology used to update lists in many major iPhone and iPad applications.
The social network says the method was developed by Loren Brichter, who produced the Tweetie iPhone app which was bought by Twitter and converted into its own official iOS app.
The patent application has been submitted in the US and reads:
Methods, computer readable media, and apparatuses for providing enhanced user interface mechanics are presented. In one arrangement, a scrollable list of content items may be displayed. Input associated with a scroll command may be received. Then, based on the scroll command, a scrollable refresh trigger may be displayed. Subsequently, the scrollable list of content items may be refreshed in response to determining, based on the scroll command, that the scrollable refresh trigger has been activated. In at least one instance, it may be determined that the scrollable refresh trigger has been activated in response to determining that the scroll command was completed while the scrollable refresh trigger was fully displayed."Pull to Refresh" is used by many iOS apps including the official Facebook app and the increasingly popular Twitter app Tweetbot.
If Twitter wins, they'll either have to pay a fee for using the patent, change their updating methods or scrap their apps.
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