Well, most of them uses a triangular shape, where the front (where the touch pad is located) is quite a bit thinner than the back, where the battery is located. They look kind of like this:
Asus Zenbook
Well... Here is an image from Apple's new patent:
Image from The Verge
The patent covers more things than just the V shape, but it is very vaguely illustrated and basically, things like having 4 "feet" near the corners will infringe the patent. I am no lawyer or judge, but I do believe you have to infringe more than one or two design patents before you can be sued. However, with vague things like this Apple will be able to just make things up along the way which the patent covers (for example, it doesn't matter what kind of shape or size the feet are, they will still infringe the patent) and sue basically anyone trying to make thin and light laptops, or "Ultrabooks" as they are called.
Here is the patent for those of you interested: United States Patent and Trademark Office.
Further reading: The Verge and The Washington Post.
From what I know, when making a patent you try to make your claims as wide and as ridiculous as you possibly can. Afterwards, others challenge the claims of the patents to reduce their number, either because the claims are too wide or because they infringe on existing patents. That is all in theory at least, when you have the best liers around I guess shit changes.
ReplyDeleteIn any case, the patent system has become pants on head retarded, pretty much like the scientific articles system. They both are in need of review, renewal or a completely different system.
This is the reason to why I don't like Apple as a company. They pretend to be the only company in the world and that their products are the only ones that should be allowed to exist just to fool the tech-illiterate (and somewhat stupid) potential buyers.
ReplyDeleteWell, money can buy you anything and if you are famous, popular or a good lier money can probably buy you everything.