Apple earns long-gestating rounded rectangle patent, should other tablet makers be concerned?
So there you have it folks. Apple has officially been awarded the patent for a rounded rectangle, as first demonstrated by the original iPad. This can’t be real life. One of several key elements to Apple’s revolutionary tablet design, it’s a shape that Apple has defended rigorously in courtrooms around the globe. But will their new patent only serve to increase the company’s thirst for the blood of other tablet makers?
We can’t say for sure at this point, but given the track record we’re working with we don’t see how Apple won’t attempt to use a patent for a shape that has existed since before the very technology it now defines (and in fictional depictions of such technology from yesteryear’s sci-fi) in their favor. The real question is, should Samsung, Motorola, and other Google partners feel overly concerned? Probably no more than they have been in light of previous legal action from Apple.
While the patent was approved — we still don’t quite understand how the US Patent and Trademark Office went ahead with this one — it still remains a hard one to justify in courtrooms. Yes, Apple’s patent for the rounded rectangle may create new ground for legal action, but it won’t create any less trouble for attorneys on both sides of the court. Or judges for that matter. Unless your name happens to be Judge Lucy Koh. Then the answer is quite obvious: Apple always wins.
[via Gizmodo]