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Apple Files for OLED Keyboard Patent

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the prior-art dept.

pegdhcp writes to mention that Apple has applied for a patent on a 'dynamically controlled keyboard' with OLED keys. This may seem remarkably familiar, since an OLED keyboard has been bandied about by Art Lebedev studios for quite a while now. "while the Optimus Maximus is a bit expensive, Apple could certainly mass-produce something similar for less money, perhaps bringing the price into reality for most users. Lebedev has, however, apparently applied for several patents for the Optimus, so it's unclear just what Apple is up to, or what would happen if the company were ever to release such a product."

14 of 188 comments (clear)

  1. Patent Fight *or* License from Art. Lebedev? by Zymergy · · Score: 4, Informative

    IANAL, but it seems that Art. Lebedev Studio could just negotiate a fat licensing fee for the technology/idea with Apple and both would win from the collaboration...?
    Surely that beats a costly Patent fight?
    What about Prior Art?
    Re: Optimus Keyboard With OLED Display Keys http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/07/14/1335215
    Re: Optimus OLED Keyboard Pre-Orders Start Dec. 12 http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/11/19/1911235

    I would love to see this technology in an affordable Laptop/Notebook keyboard. (Particularly one that has open source GPL'd base drivers.)

  2. Apple and IBM by NickCatal · · Score: 2, Informative

    Apple and IBM own enough patents to patent every square inch of my kitchen if they wanted... it is called R&D... most of this stuff won't make it to market

    --
    -nick
  3. Watch the "prior art" screaming start by Infonaut · · Score: 5, Informative

    Until you've read the actual claims in a patent, it is impossible to know what Apple is actually attempting to patent. The fact that the description is of an OLED keyboard doesn't mean that prior art will negate the claims any more than the existence of LCD screens would necessarily invalidate a patent on an LCD screen.

    Now to settle in and watch the ill-informed rants about patent law multiply like rodents. Anyone have any popcorn?

    --
    Read the EFF's Fair Use FAQ
    1. Re:Watch the "prior art" screaming start by makomk · · Score: 2, Informative

      I've read the claims, and it seems to be a patent application for exactly what people are saying it's a patent application for - keyboards with OLED displays on the keyboard, like the Optimus Maximus. (Actually, it covers slightly more than that - claim 1 is for any computer peripheral with one or more keys containing more than one LED that can be switched on or off. It's not narrowed down to just things like the Optimus Maximus until claim 4.)

  4. Re:apple fanboys by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    "But to think that a patent can't be valid and innovative just because someone has a similar product is a fallacy;" Its called PRIOR ART. No, IT'S NOT. Learn about what the hell you are talking about or shut up. Every time there is a patent story on slashdot the comments are full of idiot replies from people like you who don't understand anything other than ignorant knee-jerk reactions.

    Patents are for IMPLEMENTATIONS, not products. Someone can have the same product as me, AND have it for years prior to my own, but I can still patent my own way of making the thing, assuming no one else has used that particular implementation. As the GP said, believing a patent can't be valid just because someone else has a similar product is a massive fallacy - there are often many different ways to make the same product (some more ingenius, less obvious, or just downright cheaper, than others).
  5. Re:apple fanboys by MACC · · Score: 5, Informative

    15 years ago you could buy keyboards with an lcd display in each and
    every keycap.

    Now please tell me the difference to that.

    This is not old but ancient stuff.

    G!
    MACC

  6. What about Prior Art by Udo+Schmitz · · Score: 3, Informative

    Yeah, what about Prior Art? You think Lebedev was first? Check the Wikipedia entry http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optimus_Maximus_keyboard which has links to http://www.unitedkeys.com/ and http://lcd-keys.com/english/history.htm

  7. That one takes a 5 minute patent search.... by originalhack · · Score: 2, Informative
    This 1984 patent kills their first 12 claims and this product shipping in 2005 kills their remaining 13 claims unless you believe that the product had a wiring harness going from an lcd driver not on the keytop down up to the keytop.

    That's all 25 claims dead right there.

  8. Process Patents by AHumbleOpinion · · Score: 2, Informative

    about the only thing in the patent that may be innovative [that is that hasn't already been done] is claim 25 about their new manufacturing process [or not, it could be obvious in of its self, who knows] other than that, why hasn't this been thrown out yet due to prior art?

    One family of patents is the process patent. The invention is the manufacturing process, not the item. Whether or not the items manufactured are ordinary is irrelevant.

  9. Re:a large "iphone" keyboard by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    Like one of these? http://www.artlebedev.com/everything/optimus-tactus/

  10. Re:apple fanboys by Dogtanian · · Score: 1, Informative

    Love to see an example of that. LCD main displays in notebooks are barely 15 years old and color ones not even that. The Atari Lynx games console came out in 1989 and had a colour LCD display. Technically, that wasn't a notebook, but it suffices for the purposes of this discussion. Furthermore, you assume (wrongly) that "LCD display" means the modern colour type (i.e. where the liquid crystals are used with a tri-colour filter and backlight to vary the brightness of colour pixels).

    As the other reply also stated, they could have been (and were) monochromatic. Monochromatic LCD displays (the type with "floating" grey elements against a non-illuminated reflective silver background), have been around since the early 1970s and were in widespread- and cheap- use by the early 1980s.

    And yes, smartass, these were also "liquid crystal displays", and commonly referred to as LCDs. Up until a few years ago, this is the type of display people would have thought you meant when you said "LCD".

    In other words, GP was right, you're wrong and...

    I guess if you're going to say something stupid it might as well be really stupid. Oh, the irony.
    --
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  11. Re:apple fanboys by Kymermosst · · Score: 2, Informative

    Well, I just found this, but there is still no mention of a mass produced keyboard that someone could buy that had an "lcd display in each and every keycap" as the grandparent poster said.

    --
    "Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives" should be a convenience store, not a government agency.
  12. Re:apple fanboys by MACC · · Score: 4, Informative

    Thanks for the link: http://lcd-keys.com/english/history.htm

    1984! , even earlier than I remembered.

    The first image from the top
              http://www.e3-keys.com/images/image012.jpg
    is the one I had in mind.

    G!
    MACC

  13. Re:context specfic layouts by kimvette · · Score: 2, Informative

    http://www.artlebedev.com/everything/optimus/

    Check it out. They even show right on the web site the profiles for Adobe CS programs.

    Also, check out the demo page:

    http://www.artlebedev.com/everything/optimus/demo/

    The images can and do change on the fly as needed.

    Apple is attempting to patent prior art.

    --
    The Christian Right is Neither (Christian nor right). See: Matthew 23, Matthew 25, Ezekiel 16:48-50