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Do you honestly think this is some kind of defensive patent?

Short of a press release that states "Yes, we are doing this" I'm not sure how it gets clearer. That's just me though, can you describe the scenario you are imagining?

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I am not going to opine on the specific reasoning behind Apple's patenting this because only they truly know until a product is released, but if I were in the business of creating operating systems and I came up with a concept that could apply to an OS that was patentable, I'd surely do so, regardless of whether or not I planned on using it. It could be defensive, it could be an attempt to capitalize on a system by a competitor, or a pre-emptive move to stop competitors from doing this. They may use it in a specific niche product or they may end up using it, but there is rarely a direct correlation between a patent and a plan as the OP seems to claim with his title. The legal profession, especially relating to patents and the interrelation of companies is a huge chess game, one that I don't claim to be an expert on.

The title is misleading and makes it sound as though the next version of Mac OS X will be loaded with ads.

This simply is not the case.

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