I'm glad you brought up Microsoft tablets! It's an excellent point because in all this talk about how the design of a tablet is obvious no one seems to get that it could have and has been done differently in the past. I think a lot of why it's obvious now is because the iPad is the point of reference. If the iPad didn't exist we may have a different view of what's obvious. Even if you take industrial design practices into account that doesn't mean manufacturers would have followed them like many imply.
I feel like there's too much talk about patents. I want to avoid talk of patents, trademarks, and the whole debate surrounding them. Instead, if you first focus on what's really going on here you see things differently. You'll see a tablet that came out first then another competing tablet that looks almost identical. Patents and trademarks aside its pretty hard to miss the similarity and if you consider that MS tablets and other previous attempts weren't designed that way then the whole "obvious" argument goes out the window.
It's normal for competing products to have the same features and many other similarities but there's a point where the competition stops making a competitive product and comes out with something that's a rip off. Patents and trademarks are things we should discuss and are important topics but in this case they're just a tool Apple is using to stop getting ripped off. I know they're abused but I think it's justified in this case. Look at the Samsing tablet next to an iPad. If you don't see the outright plagiarism then youre trying not to see it. I think this is a pretty clearcut case that's getting convoluted by people who are trying to tip toe around the plagiarism by making this about the merits of the patent/trademark system and laws.
Plagiarism? ROFL. Astroturf much? Small, thin, black, touch-screen devices with centered buttons. There's not a lot of room to vary, and no reason to disappoint consumers and make it thicker than need be, etc. Next you'll be telling us Star Trek infringes on Master and Commander because a ship full of people explore and fight.
As for the merits of patents, they exist solely as a tax-funded subsidy for lawyers and lobbyists. They're useless verging on incredibly damaging for industry and thus consumers.
I feel like there's too much talk about patents. I want to avoid talk of patents, trademarks, and the whole debate surrounding them. Instead, if you first focus on what's really going on here you see things differently. You'll see a tablet that came out first then another competing tablet that looks almost identical. Patents and trademarks aside its pretty hard to miss the similarity and if you consider that MS tablets and other previous attempts weren't designed that way then the whole "obvious" argument goes out the window.
It's normal for competing products to have the same features and many other similarities but there's a point where the competition stops making a competitive product and comes out with something that's a rip off. Patents and trademarks are things we should discuss and are important topics but in this case they're just a tool Apple is using to stop getting ripped off. I know they're abused but I think it's justified in this case. Look at the Samsing tablet next to an iPad. If you don't see the outright plagiarism then youre trying not to see it. I think this is a pretty clearcut case that's getting convoluted by people who are trying to tip toe around the plagiarism by making this about the merits of the patent/trademark system and laws.