Amazon Wins First Kindle Patent; Bigger Screen Expected Soon 50
An anonymous reader writes "One day before Amazon is scheduled to unveil its widescreen Kindle aimed at newspaper readers, the e-commerce giant has been awarded its first US patent for an e-book reader. The new patent, D591,741, is a design patent which protects the look and feel of the Kindle shell, not for fundamental technologies. Those patents are mostly held by E Ink Corp., which makes the 'liquidless paper' display. Sony, IBM, and the Discovery cable TV network also have e-book patents. Amazon, though the leading e-book seller, has none, but the patent award indicates they've applied for at least four recently." Also in Kindle news, PC World has a brief article up on the larger-screen Kindle DX (expected to launch Wednesday), including pictures first spotted on Engadget.
Design patents are generally next to worthless (Score:3, Insightful)
They protect the ornamental apperance of the device, and basically are a little bit more formal than trademark/trade dress. They are specifically precluded from protecting any functional or inventive aspect. Basically there's no story here.
Re:Look and feel patent? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Bigger Screen? (Score:4, Insightful)
I don't see the problem. The previous Kindle's are made for reading digital versions of paperback books, while the new Kindle is geared towards digital versions of hardback books.
Re:Salvation of Newspapers (Score:2, Insightful)