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Apple Granted Broad Patent On Wedge-Shaped Laptops

Posted by Soulskill on from the call-egypt-for-prior-art dept.

Nick Fel writes "Apple has been granted a broad patent (PDF) on the wedge-shaped design of the MacBook Air. The design has been copied by most ultrabooks, and their manufacturers are likely starting to feel a little uneasy about the news."

4 of 326 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Dear Patent Office by dhovis · · Score: 5, Informative

    This comes up occasionally and this is not a traditional patent, but a design patent. You can still build a wedge-shaped laptop, you just can't have it look exactly like a MacBook Air. There are lots of ways of designing around it. You could make it almost the same, but with a different finish, for example.

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  2. Re:Look-and-feel by 91degrees · · Score: 5, Informative

    It's a design patent. It's closer to trademark protection than patent protection in how its used. It protects the look of an item. A particularly famous example is the design of the Coke bottle.

    You can't get a design patent for basic functional details. The fact that it's made of two parts, that the front is thinner than the back, and it's hinged are purely functional. The specifics - the curves and contours that only serve an aesthetic purpose - can be protected.

  3. Re:Awesome... by peragrin · · Score: 5, Informative

    Patents and copyrights are used only to protect past acompilishments not create new ones. Stronger IP protections are only used to slow down growth. It is all but ignored by growing economies.

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  4. Re:Don't kill the messenger by uigrad_2000 · · Score: 5, Informative

    This is a design patent. It does not need to be inventive. The slashdot summary that said it was a "broad" patent is completely false.

    This prevents other companies from making knock-offs of this particular design. If the ornamentation on a knockoff is changed, for example, so that it no longer looks exactly like this Mac Book Air, then the knockoff is ok. It's only if it matches exactly what is in this design that it would be infringing.

    The slashdot summary makes it sound as if wedge-shaped laptops are now all covered by this patent. Whether it's just written poorly or intentionally designed to cause FUD is anyone's guess. Maybe the submitter will respond.

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