[mikestew]

Do you have a URL where this is touted as "innovative", since you used quote marks? Because I believe it was introduced as a way to be consistent with iOS and how users scroll using that OS. No one was filing patents on this one, however.

[nicky0]

Quite right. It wasn't really touted as anything. It just showed up in OS X 10.7 in 2010.

[saagarjha]

Nit: Lion was released in 2011, it was just presented in 2010.