Apple Patents Design of the MacBook Air
We all know that Intel has not invented the Ultrabook - perhaps it invented the name, but certainly not the form factor (even if Intel says that Ultrabooks are not just about the size, but about the user experience.)
Apple just patented the design of the MacBook Air, which is really the image we imagine when we talk about an Ultrabook.
Patent infringements on ornamental designs are not pursued as often as technology patents, and it is unlikely that Apple would go after Intel as long as the chipmaker is delivering the hardware for its computers, but this patent surely is interesting in the light of Intel's $300 million fund to support the launch of its Ultrabook idea. Could go Apple go after Acer, Asus and Samsung, once those firms are releasing Ultrabooks? Possibly.
However, history has told us that PCs look different than Apple computers and there may not be really an issue as Ultrabooks are unlikely to resemble the visual appeal of the MacBook Air.
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Laptops have gone thinner and thinner with each year...and has for like 2 decades. Removing the disc drive and tons of ports isn't really inventing anything. This patent is made just to stop cheap chinese copies....and even there they will just change the hinge design or somth and get away with it.
'apple releases patent' hardly news when they release one like every week...
I'm sorry, but as laptops get thinner, smaller and reliant on wireless technology, the only three design features are going to be a screen, qwerty keyboard and a hinge, and there's only so many ways you can combine them....
did people really expect anything else when they openned the floodgates to allow the patenting of just about anything?