| News | Features | Interviews |
| Blog | Contact | Editorials |
| Apple patents laptop wedge shape |
| By Thom Holwerda on 2012-06-07 21:23:26 |
| So, the next venue of patent trolling has just been opened. Apple has patented - quite specifically - the wedge shape of the MacBook Air. Not the general design or impression, no - just the wedge shape. This is interesting, because that wedge shape? Hit prior art in 3.2 seconds: the Vaio x505 from 2004. A wedge-shaped, superthin (for its day) laptop - exactly what Apple's design patent claims the company has invented. |
|
| Joke |
| By hackus on 2012-06-08 21:08:36 |
|
At first I thought it was a joke. Apple one day is going to wish it spent money on R&D instead of litigation. I don't buy apple products as I can't stomach the contracts it negotiates with suppliers....for example...reducing the protein in workers lunches to save cost. |
 - Score: 2 |
| RE[2]: Whatever happened to the Vaios? |
| By bornagainenguin on 2012-06-08 21:46:34 |
|
Morgan posited... > I can say from my own experience with Vaio laptops is that, while the specs are top notch and the visual design is usually beautiful and unique, the hardware itself is often prone to failure. From failing SODIMM slots to cooling fans that seize up, to LCD inverters that burn out in a few months (fixed when the industry in general moved to LED backlighting), to keyboards that stop responding... Don't forget the tricks they played with their various bundleware and crapware in the install which somehow combined with drivers and made the only way to get a clean install to kill the restore of the image and then delete the files before they were installed while in safe mode. SONY is a pain to deal with. I always tell people to avoid them whenever I can. Not to say that the hardware issues weren't problematic as well, I had a friend who had a SONY laptop fail recently (it was a gift) and it was the LCD screen IIRC, just that there were a whole wreath of problems there in the software as well. What should we expect from the company who brought us the musical rootkit? --bornagainpenguin |
| - Score: 2 |
| Comment by redshift |
| By redshift on 2012-06-10 04:41:37 |
| Pythagoras calls bullshit on that patent. |
| - Score: 1 |
| RE: Joke |
| By redshift on 2012-06-10 04:52:54 |
|
> I don't buy apple products as I can't stomach the contracts it negotiates with suppliers....for example...reducing the protein in workers lunches to save cost. I am sure you are typing this on a finely crafted keyboard that uses no cheap third world labor. Foxconn manufactures products for many companies including: Acer Inc. Amazon.com Cisco Dell Hewlett-Packard Intel Microsoft Motorola Mobility Nintendo Nokia Samsung Sony Toshiba Vizio |
| - Score: 1 |
| just a pointless inflammatory post |
| By kristoph on 2012-06-12 06:54:46 |
|
Thom has either (a) not bothered to read the actual patent and is totally clueless or (b) has read the patent, understands it, and is just posting this for fodder's sake. This is a design patent, equivalent to a community design and similar design rights. It prevents blatant copies of the authors design. It's not a 'wedge shape' patent or whatever. Prior art is determined thus ... "The degree of difference [from the prior art] required to establish novelty occurs when the average observer takes the new design for a different, and not a modified, already-existing design." The Vaio obviously looks different and is not prior art. The patent similarly applies only for virtually identical designs. Just as a point of interest Apple references the Sony Vaio (the X505 specifically) in the patent document along with referencing a bunch of similar designs patents. This is done to note that the are similar but different design patents already established. |
| - Score: 2 |
| Amiga 500 & Amiga 1200 Prior Art |
| By zhulien on 2012-06-12 23:01:38 |
| Amiga 1200 = prior art... same with Amiga 500... google them, read the newstand publications if you still have any... |
| - Score: 1 |
| RE[2]: Whatever happened to the Vaios? |
| By zima on 2012-06-14 23:33:23 |
|
> or the cat getting on the keyboard and ripping keys off What the?... |
| - Score: 2 |
| RE[3]: Whatever happened to the Vaios? |
| By zima on 2012-06-14 23:39:46 |
|
> What should we expect from the company who brought us the musical rootkit? Not strictly the same company... some people tend to see Sony as this monolithic evil empire, but it's more a relatively loose consortium, with various divisions often almost infighting. So, yeah, we have shitty software on their laptops or audio rootkit ...and OTOH among the best console libraries of software (also from internal studios), the very nice Sony Vegas (yeah, bought - but they could destroy it in the years since; instead, it greatly improved), or portable audio players (plus mobile phones, e-book readers & shop) which are among most open ones. |
| - Score: 2 |
| RE: USA uncompetitive |
| By zima on 2012-06-14 23:56:12 |
|
> What we have now is the patent system abused - allowed to be abused by an incompetent patent office Maybe not incompetent... they were directed - a little less than a decade ago by the then-current US administration, IIRC - to make a profit as an institution (instead of, as is sane for public institutions, to make a "loss" by itself but to bring societal benefits which more than outweigh institutional costs). So of course they'll going to grant tons of frivolous patents, that's the only way for them to be profitable. > It'll be the point when US citizen look beyond their borders and see more innovation, choice and economic activity in other countries which have a more sensible approach to patents. They'll look at their own and and realise that an economy of a few super-patent-laden monopolies is not giving them what they thought they deserved as US citizens. Don't count on it too much. It's a place already with tons of myths about their "exceptionalism" which don't quite measure up to reality, the "land of opportunity" with its "American dream" ...while, in actual measure of this stuff (social mobility), the US is at the bottom of developed countries (some of the countries popularly derided in the US, so called "nanny states", are at the top BTW). A place of http://web.mit.edu/krugman/www/r... myths - seems they sort of value "few super-patent-laden monopolies" ...which give conditions where people can dream that they will be one of the few who end up on top. |
| - Score: 2 |
| News | Features | Interviews |
| Blog | Contact | Editorials |