Apple is right to protect its iPad design patent
Summary: There was a time when holding a patent was a prestigious accomplishment. A patent used to be a respectable thing. Now it's a dirty word. And, shame on anyone who protects their intellectual property--especially if it's Apple.
iPad Design Patent: The Final Frontier
Two of my fellow ZDNet colleagues (Rachel King and Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols) have given their respective opinions about Apple's European Union injunction against Samsung's Galaxy tablet computer. In summary, they are not amused. I, however, am taking Apple's side in this battle. And, I might have to remind you that I'm an open source, Linux and anti-patent advocate. That said, I find Apple's actions in this matter to be justifiable and reasonable.
How can an anti-patent guy have such an opinion?
For one, I'm against certain software patents, not all patents.
And, two, I'm for reasonable intellectual property rights.
Three through infinity: I think you have a right to protect something innovative that you developed.
How many times have you seen a new product or service hit the market and you said, "Hey, I thought of that ten years ago." You might have but you didn't patent the process, the design or the technology. If you had, you'd be rich instead of regretful. If you had patented your idea, my opinion is that you'd want to protect it from thieves.
Regardless of opinion, Apple designed, patented and marketed (successfully) their iPad design and they have a right to protect that by enforcing their patent. That's why patents exist.
And, no, there's no conflict in what I'm saying here nor for what I believe to be true for many software patents. The difference is scope. Apple's iPad design belongs to Apple. UNIX, TCP/IP and HTML, for example, belong to everyone--or should belong to everyone--free of patents.
Patents are intended to protect inventions. They can be obtained for new products, processes and methods of use. They have a limited lifetime, but during that time, they provide the patent owner with exclusive rights to prevent others from working within the scope of the patent. From the BridleIP website.
What's the point of innovation if there's no protection for that innovation? The reward of a warm feeling only lasts for a few minutes. Money can last several lifetimes. Money is tangible. Money is the reason for any business pursuit. And, money is the reason that the non-innovators want to copy awesome designs. Patents are reasons that those copycats get into trouble for their transgressions.
If you invent something cool or revolutionary, you deserve the rewards for that invention. If you don't have patent protection, you'll spend a tremendous amount of time, money and effort bringing a new technology to market only to have it copied and taken away from you within a very short period of time.
Stealing and copying someone else's invention isn't clever or creative. It's just stealing.
Stealing is wrong. Stealing from Apple is wrong too.
Apple has a right to protect its tablet design. You have a right to protect your design for a better mousetrap. Sure, there will be people who imitate the design--or perhaps improve upon it--or cheapen it in some way, but if they get too close to the original, they should be stopped. It's not about squelching competition, it's about what's right and wrong.
Apparently Apple believes that Samsung got too close and the European Union agreed. You're entitled to your opinion on the matter but the bottom line is that innovation deserves protection. And, I think you'd see it differently if it were your invention's design infringement in question and not Apple's.
See also:
- Apple gets Samsung Galaxy Tab banned in E.U. with moronic ruling
- Apple secures injunction against Samsung Galaxy Tab in E.U.
- Software patents: Lots of whining, but reform unlikely
- Apple to Lodsys: Only we know how our technology works
- Apple hit with lawsuit over OS X fast booting
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Talkback
Sure
Because this patent should not have been granted to begin with.
For gosh sake how any sane institution can grant a patent for a basic design of a tablet ?
What is next a company will be granted a patent for TV design ?
Why not for the wheel as we are at that ?
If you can't see how silly this whole thing is then you are hopeless.
That appears to be the issue with many here.
they do not understand the patent process (or a patent itself) and therefor fall back on the easy assumption that if it was granted, it must be a fair and just innovative product or procedure.
It is fair to protect the rights of the holder of patented product they have invented.
It is unfair to protect the rights of the holder if the patent in question should have never been granted, as it applies to a product that others have used long before.
RE: Apple is right to protect its iPad design patent
If so, that would be prior art. Otherwise, I think Apple's patent probably stands.
RE: Apple is right to protect its iPad design patent
It's well known and heavily documented that the USPTO grants lower-quality patents and then leaves the US court system to verify the validity of some patents. If the USPTO granted high quality patents almost all of the time, many of the problems would vanish.
RE: Apple is right to protect its iPad design patent
RE: Apple is right to protect its iPad design patent
RE: Apple is right to protect its iPad design patent
RE: Apple is right to protect its iPad design patent
RE: Apple is right to protect its iPad design patent
RE: Apple is right to protect its iPad design patent
Apple has a junk patent. All of its components are protected by other companies with real patents. Apple is simply freaking out because nothing it has done is innovative not even the UI of its OS or devices. Its just prettyfied, dumbed down consumer garbage. The USPTO is also the most ineffective IP protectionist agency in the world. Patent reform is gravely needed.
RE: Apple is right to protect its iPad design patent
The design is a rounded rectangle with a square screen in the middle. There is nothing about touch, or even anything to say that it's a tablet at all. <br><br>Certainly it's not an iPad, since it has no Home button or connectors noted (which the far more detailed US design patent contains).
RE: Apple is right to protect its iPad design patent
"What is next a company will be granted a patent for TV design ?"
You mean like when Sony was awarded the patent for the Trinitron screen design?
I agree it is silly
It's silly that Apple is forced to spend time and resources defending its intellectual property from companies that cannot even put forth the minimal effort to make their products sufficiently different from an Apple's that they could pass a sniff test. However, since Samsung couldn't be bothered to make such an effort I am not going to waste time feeling sorry for it.
What's really amusing is this came from the EU the supposedly, according to folks around here, the last bastion of fairness against baseless intellectual property claims.
RE: Apple is right to protect its iPad design patent
If Samsung makes the backside some color other than white, or if they round the corners so it looks less like a rectangle - would THAT be good enough for you? Where exactly do you feel Apple has been infringed to the point of meaningful economic impact?
Samsung could have made it look like just about anything besides..
An iPad. Why didn't Samsung do so? There are many black rectangles in the world that don't look almost exactly like an iPad. And yet, damn, that Samsung sure does look like an iPad. Not just a little, but a whole lot.
RE: Apple is right to protect its iPad design patent
Out of all the tablets out now, Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1 is the only one that looks exactly like an iPad. Blatant cloning on Sammy's part.
dave95: So are you hoping Apple loses its lawsuit against Motorola?
Does this mean we can expect to see you cheering against Apple as they try to block the sale of the Motorola Xoom, a device you have just admitted does not look like an iPad?
RE: Apple is right to protect its iPad design patent
RE: Apple is right to protect its iPad design patent
RE: Apple is right to protect its iPad design patent