One of the long-running stories in the Palm and webOS saga was the value of Palm’s significant patent portfolio, for example speculation that Apple never sued Palm for many seemingly similar patent violations because of the retaliatory benefit of Palm’s patents. After all, Palm was in the PDA and smartphone game long before Apple, and […]
No, Apple, You Can’t Patent the Wedge
August 30, 2012 by 3 Comments
I came across this CNET article discussing the Apple MacBook Air’s release in 2010 and how the Sony Vaio X505 had actually beat it to the thin-and-light punch in 2004. Given Apple’s recently granted “wedge” patent for the MacBook Air, I thought it interesting to note that the Vaio X505 has a distinct wedge shape […]
Apple v. Samsung: Some Thoughts
August 25, 2012 by Leave a Comment
 v. I’m not a lawyer, let alone a patent lawyer, and so anything I might say about the outcome of the Apple v. Samsung trial that concluded yesterday are the ramblings of a layman. I understand some of the basic principles of intellectual property law, and know trademarks and copyrights well enough to do my […]
Two Quick Patent Ideas
August 31, 2011 by Leave a Comment
I haven’t fully fleshed these out, and I’m nothing close to a patent attorney, but I was thinking a bit about the patent mess we find ourselves in and came up with two quick thoughts. They are: 1. Perhaps a timeframe should be established within which a patent must be converted to an actual product […]