Mega Facepalm:Apple New patent

theserpent

theserpent

Firecracker to the moon
In an move for which no level of facepalm can suffice, the USPTO granted Apple a patent for a rectangle with rounded corners last week. Regardless of how ridiculous it may sound, sadly it’s true. According to patent no. D670,286, design rights for a “portable display device” with an external shape that is a rectangle with rounded corners are now owned by Apple. See for yourself:



Note that only the solid line is part of the patented design; the dotted lines serve as mere reference, or more likely influence, to make it look more like a patentable product, but who exactly are they fooling here? The USPTO, apparently.

What makes it even more inexplicable is the fact that design patents are almost always quite specific, to the extent that anyone else would really need to replicate that particular design in order to infringe upon it. In this case however, nothing else but the rounded cornered rectangular shape is patented—no buttons, no back shape, no screen shape, not even the radius of the rounded corner. This in itself raises questions about the practical validity of this patent, and whether those in charge of putting a stamp on this patent application were under the influence or in the reality distortion field.

As most of you may know, this isn’t the first time Apple has resorted to something like this. The company has had a history of getting overly broad and non-essential patents, trying to license them to its competitors, and taking to court those who fail to comply. Such broad patents awarded to Apple in the past were at times deemed as invalid by the USPTO after further investigations but the damage was done by that time, in form of import bans on competitors for the products initially declared as infringing. In the end, it’s the consumers who suffer from all of this.

So what should be the course of action from here? As discussed recently by egzthunder1 in The Weekly Apple Fail Update, both the USPTO and the US justice system should take cues from the UK, extract their heads from their rears, and take a closer look at what is being examined before awarding a patent or a ruling. Untill that happens, let’s keep our fingers crossed and hope that Apple doesn’t start taking all tablet and smartphone manufacturers to court for infringing upon this one.
Click to expand...

Patent System Fail: All your Rectangle with Rounded Corners are Belong to Apple – xda-developers
 
Flash

Flash

Lost in speed
what will happen to External HDD's then? :evil:

*www.net-security.org/images/articles/facepalm.jpg
 
rohit32407

rohit32407

Ambassador of Buzz
:rofl: :rofl: Day by day this patent system is becoming more and more ridiculous. If this post wasn't in this section of the forum i would have thought that it was just a random sarcastic post and yes it's that ridiculous.
 
rohit32407

rohit32407

Ambassador of Buzz
Gearbox said:
what will happen to External HDD's then? :evil:
Click to expand...

Maybe they will have to do with Square Shape or maybe a parallelogram :p. Well parallelogram shaped HDDs would be fun to own :p. I am waiting for the time when apple will start patenting measurement of the arc of the rounded corners.
 
Flash

Flash

Lost in speed
screw you lifebuoy...
*www.india-server.com/news-images/microchip-in-lifebuoy-soap-8257.gif
 
OP
theserpent

theserpent

Firecracker to the moon
Lol...the first comment in xda
xD

*a2graphz.wordpress.com/2012/11/14/apple-patents-rectanglewith-rounded-corners-are-belong-to-apple/

*a2graphz.wordpress.com/2012/11/14/apple-patents-rectanglewith-rounded-corners-are-belong-to-apple/
 
Desmond

Desmond

Destroy Erase Improve
Staff member
Admin
Imagine if Henry Ford patented all four wheeler cars, today we would all have 3 wheelers or 5 wheelers etc by other manufacturers and only Ford cars would be 4 wheelers.

Rotten apple does not fall far from the tree.
 
Hrishi

Hrishi

******************
DeSmOnD dAvId said:
Imagine if Henry Ford patented all four wheeler cars, today we would all have 3 wheelers or 5 wheelers etc by other manufacturers and only Ford cars would be 4 wheelers.

Rotten apple does not fall far from the tree.
Click to expand...
Can't imagine me driving an Auto-Rickshaw. :p
 
Flash

Flash

Lost in speed
Apple thinks it's a decisive strategy on the future tablet market.
But, what if someone creates a tablet with square-shaped tablet with rounded corners.
Will they sue them?

Patents like this cripple innovation and what the current tablet/mobile makers are going to address this issue?
 
bubusam13

bubusam13

Human
Guys, read the comment of mohit. I fell off from my chair. ha ha :evil::banghead:
Patent System Fail: All your Rectangle with Rounded Corners are Belong to Apple – xda-developers

They also patented page turning. Guys, burn Apple. Let Indian farmers patent a apple.
check here
 
pratyush997

pratyush997

Inactive
Apple...go home.. U r heavily drunk.... Steve Y u no alive to kick cook's @ss.... Ohh.. Damn apple ....
what if motorola sue every company for making cellular phones... Or nokia does for gsm mobiles... Apple went crazy cuz of droid jb and wp8
 
Desmond

Desmond

Destroy Erase Improve
Staff member
Admin
This is actually the proof that the human race is gradually devolving back into primitive creatures.
 
gameranand

gameranand

Living to Play
Well I can't stop laughing after reading this. Patented a shape, are you kidding me. LOL at the first comment on xda.
Anyways where does this patent system would work, world level or USA level ??
 
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