Kitz Forum
Chat => Chit Chat => Topic started by: kitz on September 28, 2016, 11:00:06 AM
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Apple has just patented their newest technology.
Name of invention: Bag
Bag
A paper bag is disclosed. The paper bag may include a bag container formed of white solid bleached sulfate paper with at least 60% post-consumer content. Bag Container.
.../snip/...
It should be understood that the following descriptions are not intended to limit the embodiments to one preferred embodiment. To the contrary, it is intended to cover alternatives, modifications, and equivalents as can be included within the spirit and scope of the described embodiments as defined by the appended claims.
http://www.freshpatents.com/-dt20160915ptan20160264304.php
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I really wasn't sure whether to post this in the News Articles, Apple Related, Tech Chat or even Jokes!
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I suppose the really mad thing is that the US patents office is even prepared to consider a patent application for a paper bag. Surely they recognise the concept of "prior art"? I'm sure bags like this have been produced before. ???
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I find patents for bags more tolerable than software patents. ;)
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I have to agree with you about that.
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The amount of patents that Apple apply for is astounding. Look at this list (http://stks.freshpatents.com/Apple-Inc-nm1.php) for just the past month.
I haven't looked in details but just picked a couple. One looks like it may be for screen icons being pre-loaded and other patenting detection of one or more fingers for user input.
>> Surely they recognise the concept of "prior art"?
Isnt that how Samsung got caught out and had to redesign the way people used their phones because Apple patented home button behaviour. Im sure they even patented the shape of the phone. ??? Cant recall exact details now. Its all a bit ridiculous.
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The way people are allowed to get away with ridiculous trivial patent applications is just absurd, they're not being rewarded for real ingenuity and design work. There needs to be a law on eligibility, although defining it would be a complete nightmare. Some years ago I was involved in a patent case where various industry giants were being attacked by a patent troll law firm over a trivial graphics patent, and the grant of the patent was also ridiculous because of prior art.
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That's the problem with software patents. There are trillions of lines of code published every year, so it's impossible to check for prior art. Numerous software patent applications go through in the US, simply because there's nobody able to check if they've been published before. This gives an enormous advantage to the powerful large companies at the expense of small software companies.
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For software and real patents alike, the US patent system has gotten so bonkers that companies will often patent anything and everything that they think they can get away with.
It's not always that they want to assert the rights to these 'inventions'. Rather that they just want to stop some other opportunist with a similar patent from attempting to extort license fees. Holding their own patent makes it easier to convince a judge, I believe, that their paper bag is original.
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If this is for real it just shows how stupid Apple are to my mind. Next this is you will see huge queues of folks at the Apple stores trying to be the first to get a paper bag, probably for something like $500 a go. US patent law is about as useful as a paper bag and just about as waterproof!
Stuart
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@broadstairs. Yes its for real.
My brother is a huge Apple fan who gets most of their new devices etc. I'm tempted to try get hold of one of these for Christmas :D
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I understand the outrage in this situation, but Apple aren't patenting a paper bag. They are patenting a method of producing a paper bag, using the maximum amount of recyclable material.
For example, this is what The Register and The Guardian had to say.
The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/sep/20/apple-patent-recycled-paper-bag (https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/sep/20/apple-patent-recycled-paper-bag)
Recycled paper bags are not an innovation, of course. The innovation, in this case, is how Apple intends to hold the bag together with such a high proportion of recycled material. White paper bags made of recycled material tend to be fairly flimsy due to the amount of bleach used, so Apple has come up with a bundle of alterations that should help its bags remain both pearly white and environmentally friendly.
Those alterations include fancy reinforcements at the folds and gussets of the bag, another one at the bottom that sticks to the sides, and a handle “formed entirely of paper fibre yarn knitted in an 8-stitch circular knit pattern”.
The Register: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/09/20/apple_seeks_patent_for_paper_bag_you_read_that_right_a_paper_bag/ (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/09/20/apple_seeks_patent_for_paper_bag_you_read_that_right_a_paper_bag/)
The environment is prominent in the application as Apple plans this bag to be made of nothing but paper, but still to be strong. Using just paper – and 60 per cent recycled paper at that – is hoped to make the bag as green as possible (although Apple wants it to be white).
So this is not a patent for all bags, but for one method of making bags. And it is a reasonably complex method as it involves “folds or gussets at its corners or edges” as “Such reinforcement inserts can augment the strength and resistance to tearing of the bag container material to make it structurally suitable for use as a bag, thereby increasing the amount of post-consumer content usable in an SBS paper bag. This can help to reduce any environmental impact from production, use, and disposal of the bag.”
Apple's reportedly used the bag in its stores for a few months now.