Oh I agree, the patents are ridiculous, but I think if any of the big manufacturers were willing to make a go of it, they'd have done it by now. That said, I t

Oh I agree, the patents are ridiculous, but I think if any of the big manufacturers were willing to make a go of it, they'd have done it by now. That said, I think the specific innovation they rest their patent on is that it can be inverted. Under current patent doctrine that might be enough, and I suspect people wouldn't be very happy with a non-invertable magsafe-like.