Apple Officially Patents the Rounded Rectangle!

Back in November 2010, Apple filed a patent application for a device shaped like a rounded rectangle. You’d think it’s a pretty obvious shape and there would be plenty of prior art for such a thing, wouldn’t you? Nope. Apple have just been granted such a patent, number D670,286. The patent claim is officially explained like this: “CLAIM The ornamental design for a portable display device, as shown and described”. This means that it’s an “ornamental” patent, which isn’t quite as strong as a “utility” patent when it comes to patent trolling others into coughing up royalties or forcing them out of competion.

However, the patent is so broad, that it looks like Apple would have a hard time enforcing it. Think about it: every single rectangular device out there must have corners rounded to some degree or it would end up stabbing people and be a safety hazard. I’d really like to know what the patent examiner was thinking when granting this patent and it wouldn’t surprise me if this gets overturned sooner rather than later. The US patent system is broken and this is a fine example of that breakage.