Anything to stop the competition I guess,,,
Earlier this week, Apple got a bunch of new patents approved, including one covering the "design" of the original iPad.
What does this "design" patent cover?
Mostly, it covers the fact that the iPad's "design" is a rectangle with rounded corners.
If there has been any recent patent that better reveals the absurdity of our current patent system, it's hard to imagine what it would be.
Related: Why Steve Jobs Was "Wrong" About the iPad Mini: Blodget
For the last few decades, the idea of tablet computers has often been discussed. Several companies created have prototypes. As far as I can remember, all of these prototypes were rectangles with rounded corners. (Do you remember a triangle-shaped one? Maybe a disk? Neither do I). Sharp corners, meanwhile, could potentially hurt consumers, so of course intelligent designers will round them.
But now Apple has been given a patent for the iPad design that includes its rectangular shape and rounded corners.
So... Does that mean that Apple will now seek an injunction against Google, Amazon, Samsung, and other companies that have produced rectangular-shaped tablets with rounded corners? Will Apple try to use the patent to extort billions out of these companies?
Thankfully, patent expert Alexandre Montagu of MontaguLaw, the author of Intellectual Property: Money And Power In A New Era, doubts that it will.
Related: iPad Mini: Will It Cannibalize Apple's Regular iPad Sales?
Montagu believes Apple will use the patent primarily to defend against "counterfeit" iPads.
Montagu also points out that there's precedent for patents like these: A shoe maker, for example, was given a patent for using the color red. And he observes that U.S. patent law
http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/apple-ipad-patent-reveals-absurdity-patent-system-143108743.html?l=1
Realist - Everybody in America is soft, and hates conflict. The cure for this, both in politics and social life, is the same -- hardihood. Give them raw truth.
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