Apple receives broad patent on MacBook Air wedge design


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It's been pretty easy to look at recent Apple design patents and see that they haven't carried with them the broad patent coverage many might think, but that isn't the case with Apple's new US patent ? D661,296 ? that issued on Tuesday. While a recent patent rumored to be on the Macbook Air design turned out to be a dud, covering only the bottom feet of the device, the 'D296 patent is much different. This patent is clearly intended to broadly cover the distinctive wedge or teardrop profile of the notebook.

http://www.theverge....wedge-ultrabook

Seriously, who is the person who approves these broad patents at the patent office?! This is ridiculous.

Is there an authority who can investigate the patent office and how these patents are approved. This is getting out of hand and reeks of corruption when Apple is allowed to patent stupid things like this which affect everyone on the market and basically are such general patents that shouldn't be approved at all.

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I don't agree with the state of patents in the industry but since everyone is suing everyone I guess this is good for Apple :/

of course it's good for Apple.. it's awful for the whole tech industry and consumers when they are given such broad patents that are completely idiotic.

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I think the other companies should try different designs then, why try to mimic what Apple has done?

The ridiculous and broad wedge designs Apple has been granted have been designed by Sony way before mac book air..

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I think the other companies should try different designs then, why try to mimic what Apple has done?

That's not really the point. You could get a patent on a rectangle home theatre device and that would prevent anyone else from doing that. It's silly.

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The ridiculous and broad wedge designs Apple has been granted have been designed by Sony way before mac book air..

To be honest I didn't really see the resemblance :/
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The ridiculous and broad wedge designs Apple has been granted have been designed by Sony way before mac book air..

While Sony did have light thin designs (I believe they were of a magnesium alloy?) they were also really flimsy. But this was 2006. Also, different design elements: hinges were different, it wasn't a tapered design (Sony had and probably still has a bulged cylinder around the hinge, coupled with a flat body), definitely wasn't unibody, etc.

Also as pointed out in another thread, the design patent is more to protect against things like this.

That said, I was at a local computer shop yesterday, checking out the Ultrabooks from Acer, ASUS, and Samsung... they do look similar in aspects to the Air, yet have differentiating qualities and can stand on their own.* It's not as bad as in the tablet space, where it seems everyone settled on Apple's black bordered screen and thought that slapping the company logo on the front was all that's needed for a different design.

* Unfortunately their touchpads still massively suck.

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apple are not the first to use a wedge design on laptops, they the first with this thin wedge. but gaming laptops from both toshiba and asus uses a wedge design to collect hot elements at the back with big and effective cooling.

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While Sony did have light thin designs (I believe they were of a magnesium alloy?) they were also really flimsy. But this was 2006. Also, different design elements: hinges were different, it wasn't a tapered design (Sony had and probably still has a bulged cylinder around the hinge, coupled with a flat body), definitely wasn't unibody, etc.

Also as pointed out in another thread, the design patent is more to protect against things like this.

That said, I was at a local computer shop yesterday, checking out the Ultrabooks from Acer, ASUS, and Samsung... they do look similar in aspects to the Air, yet have differentiating qualities. It's not as bad as in the tablet space, where it seems everyone settled on Apple's black bordered screen and thought that slapping the company logo on the front was all that's needed for a different design.

thats the point though, the only thing specific to the patent is the wedge shape. it doesnt matter what feet, hinges or ports it has. as lng as it's a wegde, it infringes.

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The ridiculous and broad wedge designs Apple has been granted have been designed by Sony way before mac book air..

No, just no.

That's not really the point. You could get a patent on a rectangle home theatre device and that would prevent anyone else from doing that. It's silly.

No, you cannot.

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While Sony did have light thin designs (I believe they were of a magnesium alloy?) they were also really flimsy. But this was 2006. Also, different design elements: hinges were different, it wasn't a tapered design (Sony had and probably still has a bulged cylinder around the hinge, coupled with a flat body), definitely wasn't unibody, etc.

Also as pointed out in another thread, the design patent is more to protect against things like this.

This. While both share that wedge design, they are both still different. with the MacBook Air having rounded corners compared to the cylinder hinge the Sony notebook has.

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This ugly thing?

You. must. be. joking.

This is a laptop from 8 years ago. And it was very very sexy for that time.

And the point isn't whether or not you like it. The point is that thanks to technology devices can be designed in a certain way. This patent should HAVE NEVER been granted to Apple.

It reeks of corruption at the patent office and preferential treatment towards Apple that is devastating to the technology industry and consumers. One company that is severely anti-competitive and destructive to innovation and wants to ban everyone else based on these broad patents is something that needs to be investigated at patent office. This is not about copying, this is about preventing everyone else to create sexy, thin laptops with wedge designs that would kill Apple's business because they would be cheaper and the competition among manufacturers would benefit consumers and Apple's high profit margins.

Who is allowing Apple to patent these broad patents. This is not the first time. Most of the patent lawsuits Apple is doing now are similarly broad that should have never been patented. That's why Apple is going through ITC, because with ITC those bans are not subject to questioning patents they would most likely have gotten nullified.

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This is a laptop from 8 years ago. And it was very very sexy for that time.

And the point isn't whether or not you like it. The point is that thanks to technology devices can be designed in a certain way. This patent should HAVE NEVER been granted to Apple.

It reeks of corruption at the patent office and preferential treatment towards Apple that is devastating to the technology industry and consumers. One company that is severely anti-competitive and destructive to innovation and wants to ban everyone else based on these broad patents is something that needs to be investigated at patent office.

Who is allowing Apple to patent these broad patents. This is not the first time. Most of the patent lawsuits Apple is doing now are similarly broad that should have never been patented. That's why Apple is going through ITC, because with ITC those bans are not subject to questioning patents they would most likely have gotten nullified.

Again, the patent is not as general as you make it seem. Looks like you do not know how design patents work. You just see the drawings and jump to conclusions.

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Again, the patent is not as general as you make it seem. Looks like you do not know how design patents work. You just see the drawings and jump to conclusions.

Of course it is. That's why every article is pointing out how broad this patent is.

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Not to mention that from technical standpoint, if you want to make a laptop super thin, you simply have no other way but to go wedge design because you make the parts of the laptop super thin where you don't have a lot of electronics and the rest is a bit thicker forming a wedge.

This is absurd.

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Not to mention that from technical standpoint, if you want to make a laptop super thin, you simply have no other way but to go wedge design because you make the parts of the laptop super thin where you don't have a lot of electronics and the rest is a bit thicker forming a wedge.

This is absurd.

Or companies can innovate. The Dell Adamo says hi.

alamo.jpg

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It reeks of corruption at the patent office and preferential treatment towards Apple that is devastating to the technology industry and consumers. One company that is severely anti-competitive and destructive to innovation and wants to ban everyone else based on these broad patents is something that needs to be investigated at patent office. This is not about copying, this is about preventing everyone else to create sexy, thin laptops with wedge designs that would kill Apple's business because they would be cheaper and the competition among manufacturers would benefit consumers and Apple's high profit margins.

Since when was a wedge design the most optimal design? Surely we can eventually do better than that and do away with a wedge. When another manufacturer can outdo Apple in the thinness department then they're entitled to a design patent if their method is truly unique.

Of course, that is dependent on the miniaturization trend of today and whether consumers can accept moving away from corded peripherals if we plan to have machines thinner than a USB port.

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Or companies can innovate. The Dell Alamo says hi.

alamo.jpg

The Adamo wasn't very innovative and was an attempt to cash-in on the MacBook's success.

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The Adamo wasn't very innovative and was an attempt to cash-in on the MacBook's success.

Still it was thin and did not have a design like the MacBook Air.

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