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Upside Down Phone Patent
An anonymous reader noted that "A patent has been filed for the "Upside Down Phone", which features the keypad on top and the screen on the bottom. The idea behind the upside down phone is, apparently, to allow faster texting by have a more comfortable position for the thumb to work from. A quick check of this seems to confirm the theory, making this one of those "Why didn't I think of that?" moments."
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How the H*ll Can You Patent That?
How is it possible to patent the layout of something? I'll just go and patent a much used way of laying bricks on top of eachother and everyone who builds a house has to pass by my bank account first? This patenting is getting way out of hand!
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Well it's true, there are a lot of things that seem to be common sense that aren't yet patented. For example, my upcoming patent for a simple gesture to signify the consummation of a business deal. I like to call it the handshake.
Or the fact is that he's just repositioning the keypad...doesn't seam innovative at all. What I were to patent one with the keypad on the side, or on the back, or ...wherever. It's not like he invented a keypad the rearranged the numbers or letters so that the most common text messages are easier to enter....you get my point.
Anyway, he just wasted a lot of money for a stupid patent that no one will use .. .or he'll use it to patent Troll.
And most ideas that are obvious after they're stated were obvious before they were stated. While all ideas that were obvious before they were stated are still obvious afterwards.
Taking an invention and running through all the combinations of directions of placement is not "novel". If I take AT&T's patented keypad and patent it with the numbers running right-left, or down-up, or both, that's an obvious invention from the prior art. So is putting the keypad above the display.
These patents are exceptions to the freedom to express information that are justified only by the necessity to protect the risky investments in invention that competitors would just use to start without the disadvantage of spending first on inventing, then on commercializing. This patent is an obvious example of using the initial investment in inventing the "top display" phone, then competing with it after investing practically nothing in the "bottom display" variation. It's a scam.
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I agree. Maybe I'm missing something, but the idea seems to go against simple ergonomics. I would compare it to the early versions of the Garmin hand-held GPS receivers. Several models had their buttons above the screen. You had to "drive" it with two hands; one to hold it and one to run the keypad with a finger so that you could navigate through the menus. It was my major gripe about their GPS at the time, and the reason that I went with a Magellen GPS receiver back then (I have since purchased a Garmin eTrex).
I suppose if the intent is that proficient SMS users would simply tap out their message without looking, then it might work. But for people with big hands who need to see what they're entering, it would present too much of a visual interference issue.
Once, someone suggested building in voice recognition for entering an SMS...My reply was, "why don't you just call them instead."
You're making the assumption that "if noone patented it, noone thought about it", which is, sad to say, bogus. Some people just don't run to the patent office for each and single triviality.
In this case, for example, there I can remember at least two cases of phones built just like that. One even made it all the way to being marketted. (Dunno if it actually sold or not, though.) So, yes, other people "skilled in the art" _did_ think of it before. Go figure.
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Have you ever watched a group of 16-year-old kids texting? Believe me, they aren't interested in seeing what they're writing.
"Dood, com 2 mx plc aeter schl."
What if this weren't a hypothetical question?
So someone thought they had a cool new idea because they hadn't ever seen anything like it and they were wrong... so what? If the patent *issues* then there's something to complain about (though pointing the patent office at the prior art would be a useful public service, unlike whining on Slashdot).