Creative: Trade agency investigating Apple

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Merit versus acceptance

I guess you're right, there are laws I don't agree with (the DMCA for example) yet I must comply with it. In a case where a bad patent is upheld, the same would apply.

---Other than material, shape, and form factor, what else is there? ---

I think the key to the case is not that they copied one thing, but that they copied every single thing they could. Again, see my VW analogy in the previous posting. There have been plenty of cars made with metal that are curvaceous in the past. Does this mean that Ford can release their own version of the Beetle?

---As such, you probably feel that copying that look and feel is a more egregious violation than I would---

Perhaps it's that I do a lot of design work, not to mention working with copyrighted creations. These things should receive some level of protection. If I copied Amazon's layout and graphics exactly and started my own web bookstore, you can bet I'd get sued and lose.

---I suppose that is why I have difficulty understanding why you don't give the same respect to Creative's look and feel of their hierarchical menu system. Perhaps a case could be made that this shouldn't be a patent issue and more of a "trade dress" issue? I don't know, I'm not a lawyer (obviously).---

I don't take it seriously because Apple used the exact same system back with the Lisa II. It's also the main system used by NextStep, both of which existed long before Creative filed this patent. Taking something that obvious and that common and applying it to a new device should not be enough for a patent in my book.

---Fair enough. As I said above, perhaps this shouldn't be a patentable issue. However, that doesn't mean that Apple didn't pilfer the look and feel of Creative's menu system in the same way that eMachine's use of an integrated monitor in a clear case was a pilfering of iMac's look and feel.---

Again, Apple pilfered nothing. They used the exact same system they had already been using for decades.

Posted by: tic swayback   Posted on: 06/14/06 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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