This is actually not a joke. The patent, number 6,727,830, was granted on April 27.

I think the patent only applies to PDAs or Smart Phones since the patent mention ” limited resource computing device”. It’s actually a rather smart move, I think the “click” here also only refers to the using a stylus or a phone keypad since there’s no mention of mouse specific clicks.

On my Sony/Ericsson phone I actually observers this kind of behavior already… When you click on the keypad “4” and hold it for more than a second, it will bring up all the “G H I” names in the address book. I don’t know how legally it’s going to work, but this “new” Microsoft patent is really nothing “new”.