Apple Patents the Wedge Design

[FoxKat]

I'm patenting the basic sphere. That makes everything on this earth my domain...pay up suckers!!

 

[bp328i]

I'm really in shock that the U.S. Patent Office issued this type of a patent, it's a complete joke.

Someone needs to sue/challenge the Patent Office and stop this at the source.

 

[shakes268]

Do I hear U.S. Department of Justice antitrust lawsuit against Apple?

Doubtful, one of the members of Apple's board is Al Gore. The current administration will not go after Apple because of his affiliation with the current party in power.

 

[wricks]

I'm patenting the basic sphere. That makes everything on this earth my domain...pay up suckers!!

Think I'll apply for the terms "straight edge / straight line". If you use a straight edge to make a straight line you pay double. If you claim to be straight and use a straight edge to make a straight line, WooHoo!! It's a hat trick!:icon_ lala:

It apprears that Apple is out of original ideas.

 

[landon418]

I want to stick a wedge where the light doesn't shine

 

[FoxKat]

It apprears that Apple is out of original ideas.

Apparently so, considering they are now apparently going to be releasing a smaller 7"+ sized iPad, even after Steve Jobs said "people would need sandpaper to sand down their fingertips to 1/4 their original size" to use one effectively. Perhaps the sandpaper will be standard issue? (thinks about comment...wishes to revise) No, wait...it's Apple we're talking about here. The Sandpaper will be a premium accessory. :blink:

Apple's late CEO made a rare appearance on an October 2010 earnings conference call to launch a tirade against the 7-inch tablet Samsung Electronics Inc. was set to launch as the first major challenger to the iPad.


"The reason we wouldn't make a 7-inch tablet isn't because we don't want to hit a price point, it's because we don't think you can make a great tablet with a 7-inch screen," Jobs said. "The 7-inch tablets are tweeners, too big to compete with a smartphone and too small to compete with an iPad."


He said the resolution of the display could be increased to make up for the smaller size, but that would be "meaningless, unless your tablet also includes sandpaper, so that the user can sand down their fingers to around one quarter of the present size."


"There are clear limits of how close you can physically place elements on a touch screen before users cannot reliably tap, flick or pinch them. This is one of the key reasons we think the 10-inch (25-centimeter) screen size is the minimum size required to create great tablet apps," he said.


Jobs failed to mention Apple's success developing apps that use taps, flicks and pinches on the iPhone, with its 3.5-inch (8.9-centimeter)screen.






Read more: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/Technol...r-ipad-which-jobs-detested.ashx#ixzz1zm0ua5Pl
(The Daily Star :: Lebanon News :: http://www.dailystar.com.lb)
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[billyk]

Hey Apple...

Patent *THIS*

I am sick of this crap.

I guess the only silver lining here is that it's like watching a football team switching their strategy from winning the game to not losing it. Apple has been on the defense for a long time now.

Looking forward to the eventual fall of the rotten fruit.

 

[dgstorm]

Agreed and this is what bugs me about Apple. They take credit for what has been done before, and everyone thinks they are at the peak of all innovation. However, they still can't be faulted for getting a patent if nobody else has, and those who previously used/created the design don't come forward to challenge Apple's patent.

I disagree with this logic. Just because the system is flawed, doesn't mean that people should necessarily take advantage of it. If it were legal to abuse your wife, as it is in some countries, that doesn't mean it is ethical. At some point we all must take responsibility for our actions and our integrity, whether we are an individual, a group, a nation or a company.

 

[Alastrionia]

I completely agree with you, but my original argument is that there is nothing illegal with what they are doing. While it is shady and "cutthroat," it's up to the courts (and USPTO) to deny a patent, and Apple is just doing what any intelligent and money hungry business would and should do.

You're right, given the current state of the system in place, it's not illegal to do what they are doing.

However I don't agree with the intelligent part of that statement. Money hungry, most definitely. Intelligent they are not.

The would and should used to be one up your competition, make them work to bring something even better.

Now it's just entitlement and seeing how far you can bully others around while crying foul.

 

[FoxKat]

I disagree with this logic. Just because the system is flawed, doesn't mean that people should necessarily take advantage of it. If it were legal to abuse your wife, as it is in some countries, that doesn't mean it is ethical. At some point we all must take responsibility for our actions and our integrity, whether we are an individual, a group, a nation or a company.

Exactly, the end doesn't justify the means. It's abuse of the system, nothing less. And just like abuse of a person, abuse of the system in this fashion is morally and ethically wrong.

 

[dave52355]

Apple has never demonstrated " ethics " in the past, I suspect they plan not to now. They have always taken other products, " improved " them than convinced folks they were first. I have old Windows phones with touch screens that were around before the Iphone. Perhaps when the 7" Ipad hits Samsung can sue being the Galaxy Tab 7 was out first.

 

[Dave12308]

Yep, loose interpretation of the wedge can put the maxx and razr into that category..

DROID RAZR MAXXIMIZED!!!! PREPARE TO BE VANQUISHED!!!

Hell, my Bionc is vaguely wedge shaped. As is my desk telephone. As is my PC keyboard. As is my Windows laptop. As is my TV remote. The list goes on.

I don't know how Apple was able to patent something so abstract, this is like patenting the concept of a circle.

 

[COSam]

Geez if they are actually successful with filing patents as broad as this, it makes me wonder what other crap they have tried to patent but have been denied.

 

[shakes268]

Little did we know that the company name Apple and the logo (an apple with a bite taken out if it) was representative of the juicy red POISON apple handed to Snow White by the Queen...because she wanted to be the fairest of them all.

 

[nikecar]

Folks. Get your cheese now because in under a yr, we won't get any more cheese wedges.