OT: Trade Dress Protection and Patent Law : Apple Vs Samsung

[ChuckT]

http://www.leasonellis.com/wp-content/u ... Shapes.pdf

So basically they're saying that if your phone has round edges, a flat screen, rectangular and has icons, you're somehow violating a patent? Aren't LCD's flat? Haven't icons been around forever? Isn't the Amazon Kindle round on four corners? I thought patents could only patent their implementation of their design but it includes basic things that are already sold which are patented by other companies. They are basically claiming ownership of other works? So if I buy an off the shelf LCD that is square and flat, put it into a rectangular case, put icons on the screen then I'm violating a patent? That is like patenting electricity going into a device and saying no one else can use electricity. Isn't this anti-competition? And somehow it is deceptive to have a rectangular device that you will be fooled and think it is an Apple product or knockoff?

[BigDumbDinosaur]

ChuckT wrote:

http://www.leasonellis.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Trade-Dress-Protection-Not-In-Great-Shape-For-Great-Shapes.pdf

So basically they're saying that if your phone has round edges, a flat screen, rectangular and has icons, you're somehow violating a patent? Aren't LCD's flat? Haven't icons been around forever? Isn't the Amazon Kindle round on four corners? I thought patents could only patent their implementation of their design but it includes basic things that are already sold which are patented by other companies. They are basically claiming ownership of other works? So if I buy an off the shelf LCD that is square and flat, put it into a rectangular case, put icons on the screen then I'm violating a patent? That is like patenting electricity going into a device and saying no one else can use electricity. Isn't this anti-competition? And somehow it is deceptive to have a rectangular device that you will be fooled and think it is an Apple product or knockoff?

This is reminiscent of the the attempt by Visi-Calc to patent the "look and feel" of the spreadsheet and then suing Lotus for infrongement. That, of course, failed for the same reason that no one has a patent on the shape of an automobile's steering wheel or a living room sofa.

[Alienthe]

There is an issue here about terminology. A "patent" in the US can mean two very different things and should be written in full, not abbreviated into ambiguity:
"utility patent" - what is known as "patent" in the rest of the world - protecting a technical invention
"design patent" - what is known as just "design" in much of the rest of the world - protecting an appearance but not the technical workings.

So Apple won when they litigated over a design patent. Samsung struck back with a mobile phone designed by patent attorneys but that story is perhaps a bit too far outside the scope of this forum (not sure how much slack there is on a quiet day).

[BillO]

You'll have to wait for a quiet day to find out.