[QUOTE]Apple has opened a broad new front its intellectual property war by patenting a rectangle with rounded corners.
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued a patent for the 'ornamental design for a portable display device' to the Cupertino, California-based tech giant this week.
There have been claims in recent years, especially from Samsung, that Apple has sought to patent any conceivable oblong-shaped gadget
During the massive lawsuit battle between the two companies, Apple claimed that its rival had copied rounded corners on its own range of phones and tablets - as well as in the icons those devices displayed on screen.
Responding to the allegations, the South Korean firm noted that it was 'unfortunate that patent law can be manipulated to give one company a monopoly over rectangles with rounded corners.'
Well now, with the issue of patent no. D670,286, it appears Apple really has finally been granted intellectual ownership over the shape of objects as diverse tablet computers and slices of cheese.
The D'286 patent granted on Tuesday includes a number of drawings of the original iPad design, with most of the identifying features shown in dashed lines.
The patent description explains that 'broken lines in the Figures show portions of the portable display device which form no part of the claimed design'.
The sole unbroken line in all the figures is the outline of the iPad's flat, rounded oblong front face.
Apple originally filed the patent in December 2010, Wired reports - several months after the first iPad was originally unveiled - but it has only just been granted.
As a design patent, it covers only the device's external appearance, which must by 'ornamental' and serve no practical function
Apple had originally asserted patent D504,889 against Samsung as part of its lawsuit claiming the smartphone rival had copied the iPhone and iPad design for its Galaxy S and Galaxy Tab devices.
After some to-ing and fro-ing a jury finally ruled that Samsung had not infringed that patent, which was awarded in 2005 and appears to be based on an earlier iPad prototype, but had infringed several others.
Now the new patent appears to give Apple rights over the intellectual property that older patent was ruled not to.
Legal experts have, however, argued that its uncertain whether this new patent would be of any use to the company in court.
Lea Shaver, Associate Professor at Indiana University's McKinney School of Law, told Wired: 'This design patent gives Apple no new advantage, because no one is out there trying to market an iPad lookalike.'
After some to-ing and fro-ing a jury finally ruled that Samsung had not infringed that patent, which was awarded in 2005 and appears to be based on an earlier iPad prototype, but had infringed several others.
Now the new patent appears to give Apple rights over the intellectual property that older patent was ruled not to.
Legal experts have, however, argued that its uncertain whether this new patent would be of any use to the company in court.
Lea Shaver, Associate Professor at Indiana University's McKinney School of Law, told Wired: 'This design patent gives Apple no new advantage, because no one is out there trying to market an iPad lookalike.'
A commenter on arstechnica also explains that design patents are extremely narrow, with competitors having to do their 'level best' to replicate the design to infringe them.
The commenter adds that almost every company with products of a distinctive shape applies for them, from Microsoft for its Xbox to LucasFilm for Yoda.
Nevertheless, with the rectangular shape of the iPad being far from as distinctive as either of those two examples, it does seem that Apple really has patented the rectangle.
[/QUOTE]
[url]http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2229878/Apple-patents-rectangle-Tech-giants-intellectual-property-wars-new-twist-granted-rights-iPad-shape.html[/url]
[url]http://asia.cnet.com/apple-wins-patent-on-a-rectangle-with-rounded-corners-62219397.htm[/url]
Hnnggg...
Send Apple to the underworld.
Fucking hell
the number of rectangles on any given page of facepunch is pretty high
watch the fuck out garry
I'm patenting circles, and ovals. No-one can use them but me.
Apple what are you doing STOP IT
why are they even allowed to get away with this kind of crap
Im suing the fuck out of Apple. I drew a rounded rectangle 15 years ago.
Also yes I understand other companies aren't exactly saints when it comes to patents, but there has never before been anything as fucking stupid as this
What the hell are they paying the courts to let this slide?
Dibs on sharp corners patent.
I want to find the man who let this through and smack him round the head :v:
i wonder how much apple paid the patent office to let them have this
Guess Apple took that one joke literally.
I like your products and all Apple, but
FUCK YOU
[i]FUCK YOU
[b]FUCK YOU IN THE ASS.[/b][/i]
[QUOTE=BAR;38372306]Im suing the fuck out of Apple. I drew a rounded rectangle 15 years ago.[/QUOTE]
You'd lose. Don't matter if you did it first unless you also patented it
How much longer before people start throwing rocks at their local applestore?
Once again forcing their products down peoples necks by removing the competition
"Only [I]we[/I] are allowed the nice looking devices"
I'll patent the use of a system of lawyers that create unnecessary and broad patents, then sue Apple for every penny.
whoever keeps granting apple these patents is definitely getting a hefty paycheck from them
The patent system needs a reform, it has for a while.
How is this patentable?
Monitors are recangle(most of them) so what about them?
don't hate the player people, hate the game
there wouldn't be any patent abuse if patents weren't abusable
But that doesn't make any sense. The idea of having the rounded edges is so that you have a comfortable hold. Who wants a sharp edge digging into their hands? The only shape other companies can do now is a rectangular octagon.
Such is life in America
They didn't patent rounded parallelograms, so just use one of those with angles of 89 and 91 degrees :v:
How did this patent pass? Holy shit whoever reads and passes these have no idea about how shit Apple is with patents.
lol the U.S patent office sure is dumb.
brb patenting cubes.
Better stop smoothing down corners on furniture.
They are clearly running out of things to do: iPhone 5 - DONE, iPad Mini - DONE, Patent Rectangles - DONE I think that they will probably patent fucking colours next and then rename them to something ridiculous
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