Apple finally gets its patent on a rectangle with rounded corners

[Obambam]

Apple finally gets its patent on a rectangle with rounded corners

But is it too broad to use?
By Matt Macari on November 7, 2012 04:24 pm

There's been a lot of talk over the last couple of years — especially by Samsung during the course of its recent patent infringement trial — that Apple has obtained design patent coverage on rectangular devices with rounded corners. While that may not have been true before, it is now. The US Patent and Trademark Office issued patent no. D670,286 to Apple yesterday and it really does cover the outer edge shape of a device. There's no other way to look at it.

As we've explained before, the scope of a design patent is defined by the drawings, and the solid lines are what counts —the dashed lines are just there for context. As you can see below, the 'D286 patent has a lot of gratuitous context but just a single solid line defining what is being protected.

Previous design patents on the iPad and iPhone have included at least one additional feature in solid lines — like the home button, the back surface contour, the bezel shape, the side profile, or the edge-to-edge screen. This one ignores all of that and simply focuses on the shape of that peripheral edge. It's a broad patent. Really broad. Granted, an argument can be made that the horizontal and vertical lengths of the solid edge line in the drawings limits the patent coverage to a specific proportional design that excludes tablets with different aspect ratios, but you wouldn't want that to be your primary defense.

It is possible for a patent to be too broad to actually use

Will Apple ever use this patent against its competitors? Maybe, but there's an inherent downside to asserting a patent like this: it's vulnerable to invalidity arguments. The narrower a patent is the harder it is to find prior art devices or publications that have everything you need to knock it out. Conversely, the broader the patent the easier it is to come up with something that a judge or jury (or even the patent office) can use to invalidate it. Even though Apple submitted hundreds of prior art documents while this patent was being reviewed by the USPTO, it sure feels like a weapon too fragile for battle. It could very well just be a let's-see-what-we-can-get patent with no real offensive future. We'll see.

Apple finally gets its patent on a rectangle with rounded corners | The Verge

 

[KRAIT]

My company Banana has already applied for patent for "Regular Polygon with N sides and N tends to infinity", but the problem is people are saying it is called Circle.

 

[Obambam]

My company Banana has already applied for patent for "Regular Polygon with N sides and N tends to infinity", but the problem is people are saying it is called Circle.

End of day for smiley spam?

 

[Esc8781]

They already have the patent for phones multitasking, so why not?

 

[darkinsky]

my god..............

 

[Hulk]

One of the most stupid patents.

 

[r3alist]

One of the most stupid patents.

there are many...it seems apple is more about owning patents then innovation, judging by iphone 5

 

[Safriz]

so nobody can now make a rectangular phone?
Pythagoreans must be crying in their graves as they discovered rectangle....not apple..

 

[AZADPAKISTAN2009]

US Patents should be abolished its a means to benefit corporations and keep other nations from not developing ANTI HUMAN policies = patent laws

 

[Night_Raven]

This is what seems to be Apple's strategy post-Steve Job's demise :

-- Garner up frivolous patents.

-- Train their guns on rivals like Samsung on patent wars and win big to bring in the $$$.

Days of innovation at Apple seem to be long gone ..... nowadays Apple is in the news for patent infringement lawsuits than anything else , which is not what a top-notch tech company should be trending for ....

 

[Safriz]

The patent is for USA only..
Other countries wont accept such a 'stupid' patent.. How can people patent geometrical shapes?

 

[Rusty]

This is what seems to be Apple's strategy post-Steve Job's demise :

-- Garner up frivolous patents.

-- Train their guns on rivals like Samsung on patent wars and win big to bring in the $$$.

Days of innovation at Apple seem to be long gone ..... nowadays Apple is in the news for patent infringement lawsuits than anything else , which is not what a top-notch tech company should be trending for ....

you are right, but the thing is they are not even winning big.
They have lost almost every case they have brought against Samsung and other for these stupid Patents.
In the UK the judge got so fed up that he made Apple apologize to Samsung on their website.
Apple - Samsung/Apple UK judgment

The only place Apple won is in the US, and that too with a sketchy Judge and a jury that was lead by an idiot.
And it looks like things will be overthrown in appeals.

Back in the days when Steve Wozniak worked for Apple, they innovated like crazy.
Now they just copy others, put it in a shiny case and tell the world they innovated.

 

[Vassnti]

I have a prior use claim on a rectangle with round corners its called a rock and they have been around a long while before apples.

 

[Icewolf]

wonder how long apples streak will last

 

[Rusty]

**stolen from a Pakistani poster on Engadget***

Apple has a patent for slide to unlock, while Pakistan has had slide to unlock for decades.

I just thought that was too funny.