5 ms·

The "rounded corners" narrative needs to die. It wasn't just rounded corners. It was a combination of design features for a specific device that, among other t

The "rounded corners" narrative needs to die. It wasn't just rounded corners. It was a combination of design features for a specific device that, among other things, included rounded corners.

Mikeb85 5y ago
Still way too broad...
- Retric 5y ago
  If it covers even a dozen different trivial choices then the end result is extremely narrow.
  - garyfirestorm 5y ago
    My car looks like a sports car. Not just one corner rounded but look at all the aspects. Only I shall be able to make sports cars. I patented it. /s
    - dmitriid 5y ago
      > My car looks like a sports car. You will then be surprised that car manufacturers often engage in court battles against Chinese knock-offs.
    - Retric 5y ago
      Looks like a sports car isn’t a specific design. Compare a Bugatti Veyron with a 911 Turbo. They both have lot’s of rounded edges but somehow they are very easy to tell apart as are every brand of hyper car on the market. This wasn’t two companies that happened to come up with the same design, this was just blatant copying of pointless aesthetic details, which is illegal.
      - dmitriid 5y ago
        > They both have lot’s of rounded edges but somehow they are very easy to tell apart as are every brand of hyper car on the market. Which is very relevant in this case as in the court Samsung's lawyer couldn't tell iPad and Galaxy Tab apart from 10 feet away: https://appleinsider.com/articles/11/10/14/samsung_lawyer_couldnt_tell_ipad_and_galaxy_tab_apart_from_10_feet_away https://appleinsider.com/articles/11/10/14/samsung_lawyer_co...
        pmontra 5y ago
        I don't want to get into this old issue but I just noticed that all my notebooks are rectangular with sharp corners regardless of the manufacturer. I mean paper notebooks. It would be silly to patent and sue for that and with the hindsight of 11+ years that was a silly design patent to award. My Samsung from 2019 has rounded corners. I can't even remember how it ended except that some lawyers made a zillion of money out of it. Whether it's appropriate to use sharp or rounder corners for a given tool is common knowledge dating back thousands of years. In this case it's based on grip, handling, taking it out of a pocket, not piercing that pocket, coexisting with other items in bag, etc.
        Retric 5y ago
        It was actually the specific curve used that was at issue, but behind that phone designs are not limited to 4 rounded off corners or sharp edges. Take say the blackberry bold 9930 it’s bottom is a single curve from edge to edge without any flat parts. Considering these phones had a single button at the bottom a curve like that would have simply saved material without compromising screen size and better fit into peoples hands. There are actually a host of odd ruggedized smartphones like: https://www.catphones.com/en-us/cat-s48c-smartphone/ https://www.catphones.com/en-us/cat-s48c-smartphone/ Even for laptops you get a lot of odd edges look at the HP’s Omen X 2S. Don’t want any of those looks? It’s fine there where plenty of other things they could have done to differentiate these phones like say volume buttons next to the center one, or a back button for web pages etc. It’s only when you copy everything that it’s no longer your style it’s Apple’s. Net result in the US: The jury trial for damages concluded on May 24, 2018, awarding Apple $539 million, which includes $399 million for damages of Samsung's products sold that infringed on the patents. Germany acted much faster and simply blocked Galaxy 10.1 sales.
  - PostThisTooFast 5y ago
marcosdumay 5y ago
Apple owned the concept of a portable screen with round corners and a grid of colored icons. They had to restrict the icons into colored because there was prior art for B&W. The entire thing is a farce.
- rasz 5y ago
  LG Prada KE850 rounded corners, capacitive screen, colored icons https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LG_Prada https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LG_Prada https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mdt2wYAB1jY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mdt2wYAB1jY
  - marcosdumay 5y ago
    Ok, one that doesn't have a grid of icons. Are you claiming it's prior art? I don't think there has been prior art, once you consider all the irrelevant details. There very likely isn't, because if there was, Samsung would have used it.

The "rounded corners" narrative needs to die. It wasn't just rounded corners. It was a combination of design features for a specific device that, among other things, included rounded corners.

Mikeb85 5y ago

Still way too broad...

Retric 5y ago
If it covers even a dozen different trivial choices then the end result is extremely narrow.
- garyfirestorm 5y ago
  My car looks like a sports car. Not just one corner rounded but look at all the aspects. Only I shall be able to make sports cars. I patented it. /s
  - dmitriid 5y ago
    > My car looks like a sports car. You will then be surprised that car manufacturers often engage in court battles against Chinese knock-offs.
  - Retric 5y ago
    Looks like a sports car isn’t a specific design. Compare a Bugatti Veyron with a 911 Turbo. They both have lot’s of rounded edges but somehow they are very easy to tell apart as are every brand of hyper car on the market. This wasn’t two companies that happened to come up with the same design, this was just blatant copying of pointless aesthetic details, which is illegal.
    - dmitriid 5y ago
      > They both have lot’s of rounded edges but somehow they are very easy to tell apart as are every brand of hyper car on the market. Which is very relevant in this case as in the court Samsung's lawyer couldn't tell iPad and Galaxy Tab apart from 10 feet away: https://appleinsider.com/articles/11/10/14/samsung_lawyer_couldnt_tell_ipad_and_galaxy_tab_apart_from_10_feet_away https://appleinsider.com/articles/11/10/14/samsung_lawyer_co...
      - pmontra 5y ago
        I don't want to get into this old issue but I just noticed that all my notebooks are rectangular with sharp corners regardless of the manufacturer. I mean paper notebooks. It would be silly to patent and sue for that and with the hindsight of 11+ years that was a silly design patent to award. My Samsung from 2019 has rounded corners. I can't even remember how it ended except that some lawyers made a zillion of money out of it. Whether it's appropriate to use sharp or rounder corners for a given tool is common knowledge dating back thousands of years. In this case it's based on grip, handling, taking it out of a pocket, not piercing that pocket, coexisting with other items in bag, etc.
        Retric 5y ago
        It was actually the specific curve used that was at issue, but behind that phone designs are not limited to 4 rounded off corners or sharp edges. Take say the blackberry bold 9930 it’s bottom is a single curve from edge to edge without any flat parts. Considering these phones had a single button at the bottom a curve like that would have simply saved material without compromising screen size and better fit into peoples hands. There are actually a host of odd ruggedized smartphones like: https://www.catphones.com/en-us/cat-s48c-smartphone/ https://www.catphones.com/en-us/cat-s48c-smartphone/ Even for laptops you get a lot of odd edges look at the HP’s Omen X 2S. Don’t want any of those looks? It’s fine there where plenty of other things they could have done to differentiate these phones like say volume buttons next to the center one, or a back button for web pages etc. It’s only when you copy everything that it’s no longer your style it’s Apple’s. Net result in the US: The jury trial for damages concluded on May 24, 2018, awarding Apple $539 million, which includes $399 million for damages of Samsung's products sold that infringed on the patents. Germany acted much faster and simply blocked Galaxy 10.1 sales.
- PostThisTooFast 5y ago

marcosdumay 5y ago

Apple owned the concept of a portable screen with round corners and a grid of colored icons. They had to restrict the icons into colored because there was prior art for B&W. The entire thing is a farce.

rasz 5y ago
LG Prada KE850 rounded corners, capacitive screen, colored icons https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LG_Prada https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LG_Prada https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mdt2wYAB1jY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mdt2wYAB1jY
- marcosdumay 5y ago
  Ok, one that doesn't have a grid of icons. Are you claiming it's prior art? I don't think there has been prior art, once you consider all the irrelevant details. There very likely isn't, because if there was, Samsung would have used it.