Apple Patents the Wedge Design

[cereal killer]

The title of this article is not a misprint. The US patent office has given Apple claim of the ornamental design for an electronic device, as shown and described above. So every ultrabook, tablet, laptop and cellphone manufacturer now needs to tread very carefully because Apple didn´t specify anything more than what you see above. They didn't just specify a tablet or cellphone design either, so if you put any electronics in a wedge form, you will unleash Apple's Army of p̶a̶t̶e̶n̶t̶ ̶t̶r̶o̶l̶l̶i̶n̶g̶ lawyers.

Shocked? So are we. Apple is clearly taking advantage of a broken system. Patenting ornamental designs should be off limits, because it not only destroys innovation, it's simply ludicrous. Imagine if Ford was allowed to patent rear spoilers on automobiles and won? That is exactly what happened here. The examples can go on and on, but the fact remains that this patent has just killed innovation in the mobile and tablet space. We have the US Patent Office to thank for this one. Love or hate Apple, this latest win is a prime example of how cut throat they really are by actively taking advantage of a flawed system.

Do you think design patents should be outlawed all together, or is it in fact Apple's right to be able to patent an ornamental design?

Via: Google +

 

[RobKort]

Wow, this is really ridiculous:yelling:....

 

[Ollie]

Just out of curiosity if you were to replace the name Apple with Google would this still bother people?

I do think that technology should be protected by a patent system if you have dished out cash for R&D. You should be compensated for your research.

Patenting designs like triangles, circles, and rectangles though is ludicrous. Patenting technology that has existed before (like touch screens etc) should also be forbidden unless you have added a feature through R&D.

 

[J515OP]

Overly broad patents such as common shapes (rectangles and wedges) would bother me no matter the name behind it. Particularly when they aggressively defend the overly broad patent. I don't want to have a flip phone or a ball tablet just because somebody wants their devices to be the only rectangles you can buy.

 

[JobsiteFish]

That's a bunch of crap.

 

[Frederuco]

That's a bunch of crap.

No, this is a bunch of crap:

The crApple Wedge thing is just ridiculous!

 

[J515OP]

Watch out for a legal notice. That has a rectangular shape with rounded corners and appears to taper at one end. I smell... lawsuit(?)