10-25-2011, 11:00 AM
I don't know that patent law is bad; it's just that companies like Apple abuse it.
I recall reading that one element of patent law (at least in America) is that you can't patent anything that's obvious. The ability to select something on a screen by pointing at it is obvious. You should not be able to patent that. The idea that you could then zoom in on an image by putting two fingers on the screen and moving your fingers apart (enlarging the image by defining the corners) is also obvious. You should not be able to patent that.
Basically, if you locked 10 people in a room and gave them the scenario and 8 of them came up with the same solution, then we can probably say that it's "obvious" and can't be patented.
Maybe you can patent the underlying technology, but there again, it might be too obvious. "We used resistors and capacitors in our circuits and so did you! Patent infringement!!"
Patents were meant to protect unique, non-obvious, innovative ideas for a short period of time in order to allow the inventor to recoup the cost of the research.
What Apple is doing is clearly abusing the system. They are bad and they should feel bad.
I recall reading that one element of patent law (at least in America) is that you can't patent anything that's obvious. The ability to select something on a screen by pointing at it is obvious. You should not be able to patent that. The idea that you could then zoom in on an image by putting two fingers on the screen and moving your fingers apart (enlarging the image by defining the corners) is also obvious. You should not be able to patent that.
Basically, if you locked 10 people in a room and gave them the scenario and 8 of them came up with the same solution, then we can probably say that it's "obvious" and can't be patented.
Maybe you can patent the underlying technology, but there again, it might be too obvious. "We used resistors and capacitors in our circuits and so did you! Patent infringement!!"
Patents were meant to protect unique, non-obvious, innovative ideas for a short period of time in order to allow the inventor to recoup the cost of the research.
What Apple is doing is clearly abusing the system. They are bad and they should feel bad.