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I like how Apple is fighting patent trolls while being one. I would love to see insignifgicant tech patents to be limited to max 3 years...

by funkyy 12y ago

sjwright 12y ago
Apple aren't trolling, because they invented and patented ideas that are being used in very real products. Apple is using the patent system exactly as intended; if you object to this, your beef is with the architecture of the patent system, not with Apple. You won't help by creating a new class of "insignificant tech" patent. Who decides what qualifies a patent as insignificant? I prefer the idea someone had of doing away with the time limits altogether, and replacing it with an annual renewal fee that rises exponentially. Let the patent holder decide when the fee exceeds its usefulness. (A similar idea should apply to copyrights. Replace the current Sonny Bono time period with a much shorter length, say 25 years, plus a 25 year time extension when registered for free in a database of copyrighted works, and up to 150 years when registered for a fee.)
- dirkgently 12y ago
  Invented ideas like "slide-to-unlock" and "rounded corners"? Are those innovations?
  - stonemetal 12y ago
    Up until Apple bought PA semi most of their gear was off the shelf components. Their patents were mostly design patents. So it isn't right to think of them as innovations and more like an odd quirk in trade mark\trade dress law.
  - laichzeit0 12y ago
    I don't remember any phones having a "slide-to-unlock" before the first iPhone. If I remember most top-end phones had crappy resistive screens that required a stylus. How is that not innovation?
    - funkyy 12y ago
      Windows CE - slide to unlock + touch screen without stylus introduced on Neonode N1m - 2 years before Apple "invented" it. And all this while Apple is suing HTC, Motorola and Samsung over gesture patents...
    - dirkgently 12y ago
      > If I remember most top-end phones had crappy resistive screens that required a stylus Then you remember it wrong.
- testrun 12y ago
  They certainly are now. They are one of the investors in Rockstar.

I like how Apple is fighting patent trolls while being one. I would love to see insignifgicant tech patents to be limited to max 3 years...

by funkyy 12y ago

I like how Apple is fighting patent trolls while being one. I would love to see insignifgicant tech patents to be limited to max 3 years...

sjwright 12y ago

Apple aren't trolling, because they invented and patented ideas that are being used in very real products. Apple is using the patent system exactly as intended; if you object to this, your beef is with the architecture of the patent system, not with Apple. You won't help by creating a new class of "insignificant tech" patent. Who decides what qualifies a patent as insignificant? I prefer the idea someone had of doing away with the time limits altogether, and replacing it with an annual renewal fee that rises exponentially. Let the patent holder decide when the fee exceeds its usefulness. (A similar idea should apply to copyrights. Replace the current Sonny Bono time period with a much shorter length, say 25 years, plus a 25 year time extension when registered for free in a database of copyrighted works, and up to 150 years when registered for a fee.)

dirkgently 12y ago
Invented ideas like "slide-to-unlock" and "rounded corners"? Are those innovations?
- stonemetal 12y ago
  Up until Apple bought PA semi most of their gear was off the shelf components. Their patents were mostly design patents. So it isn't right to think of them as innovations and more like an odd quirk in trade mark\trade dress law.
- laichzeit0 12y ago
  I don't remember any phones having a "slide-to-unlock" before the first iPhone. If I remember most top-end phones had crappy resistive screens that required a stylus. How is that not innovation?
  - funkyy 12y ago
    Windows CE - slide to unlock + touch screen without stylus introduced on Neonode N1m - 2 years before Apple "invented" it. And all this while Apple is suing HTC, Motorola and Samsung over gesture patents...
  - dirkgently 12y ago
    > If I remember most top-end phones had crappy resistive screens that required a stylus Then you remember it wrong.
testrun 12y ago
They certainly are now. They are one of the investors in Rockstar.