The original idea for this came out of the Google App contest for Android. This was the idea that won the competition. So the idea was available for anyone to execute after that.
The red laser team might have come up with the idea independently or just learned about it from the Google Android contest. I am not sure if the contest or the app came out first. Someone here might know.
The app compareAnywhere won the Android ADC 1 Contest. Here is a link below: http://code.google.com/android/adc/adc_gallery/app.html?id=8
That was in 2008!
You couldn't do bar code scanning on the iPhone until 3GS came out (I think I am right on this).
So this was an idea out there since 2008. The red laser team were the first one to execute it on the iPhone 3GS.
I also have high regard for the Google team for correctly accessing the value of this idea.
Read Occipital's story on their blog http://occipital.com/blog/2009/08/01/2009-at-occipital-from-...