COMM 352: Patent Hounds

     OF COURSE the tech companies are doing patent hounding again. The idea of owning ideas is the entire basis of capitalism in the information age. The current patents on rectangular display devices held by Apple are, of course, ridiculous. Most tech patents are.

Windows XP Tablet circa 2005, violates Apple's rectangular display patent filed in 2010.

This is nothing new. In the 90's, game companies tried to patent basic elements of game controllers. Nintendo included D-pads and Analog Sticks in it's N64 controller that were subsequently copied by the PSOne controller. Nintendo raised up suits on both counts, but only won on the D-pad count. The Analog Stick was too similar to the most basic of Arcade joysticks. The D-pad win continues to this day, which is why Sony and Microsoft's controllers have much less functional directional pads.

Of course, in the mobile market, the patents can be very restrictive. Patenting thin, rounded rectangles basically eliminates all cell phones currently on the market. That would create a monopoly for Apple, which is awful.

Except, there are three smartphones not described in anyway by the patent - Motorola's Photon and Photon Q are rounded OCTAGONS, and are therefore exempt for trouble. Also, The Kyocera Echo has a folding screen that makes it exempt from this patent.

So, if you have anything besides one of those three phones or the iPhone, prepare to have your phone discontinued as Apple tries to create an evil monopoly, which is illegal, so, FUN.

Patent laws are something I have always been against, clearly, I have good reason.