Businesses
can be built on utility patents – we would pack as many independent claims as
possible into them. Design patents are desperate measures to create legal
hurdles. The US Supreme Court is getting involved with a court decision
that originally won Apple $1 billion in claims against Samsung. Easier
than working I suppose. While the settlement got reduced to nearly half
this amount, it still represents a lot of money.
As
a sometimes visual artist, I appreciate the protections afforded to works of
art and design. However, if someone buys your painting – they own
it. If they decide to cut a notch out of it so it fits around a window
frame that is there business, although I think the artist should have the right
to have his or her name removed from the work. However, industrial design
is not art, it is a commercial enterprise that creates alluring products and
environments for consumers. While the talents expressed can include
aesthetics and manifest themselves with intriguing form factors and color
palettes – these are subtle element and do not deserve the same protection as
the technology that operates behind them.
The
US Supreme Court will now look at who owns “rounded corners” and boxy forms.
This slippery assault will always be a losing battle. The 1987 Braun ET66
calculator looks a lot like the Apple iPhone and so do some of the rocks I find
in nearby creeks.
Minimalism
is in vogue now but it is a difficult design attribute to protect. So
move on and keep designing.
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