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Hardware

Lenovo Doesn't Like Framework's Circular Power Button (theverge.com) 25

Posted by BeauHD from the cease-and-desist dept.
Lenovo has taken issue with the design of the Framework Laptop and one of its power buttons. The Verge reports: In a tweet, the startup claims to have been contacted by Lenovo's legal team, who say the circular design of the power button on one of Framework's designs is too similar to the stylized "O" Lenovo uses in the wordmark for its "Legion" brand of gaming laptops. "Consumers could believe that Framework's Broken O Case or the motherboards they cover are produced by, sponsored, endorsed, licensed, or otherwise affiliated with Lenovo, when that is not the case," a screenshot of the legal letter from Lenovo posted by Framework reads.

The offending power button design doesn't appear on any of Framework's laptops. Instead, the circle can be found in the 3D printer case schematics that Framework released back in April, which allow customers to build their own Raspberry Pi-style miniature PCs using just the laptop's motherboard (these can be bought separately, as well as harvested from a Framework laptop). This YouTube video gives a nice overview of how the 3D-printed enclosure is supposed to work (the power button gets pressed at the 9:35 minute mark). [...] Framework doesn't physically sell anything with the offending power button design on it, so fixing the problem is theoretically as simple as uploading a replacement set of CAD files to GitHub. So, rather than fighting Lenovo, Framework is holding a competition for its users to submit new designs for its power button. Entries are open until August 25th, and the winner gets a free i5-1135G7 Mainboard.
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Lenovo Doesn't Like Framework's Circular Power Button More

Lenovo Doesn't Like Framework's Circular Power Button

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  • I was looking for a replacement for my 32 GB T440p... Hey Fred, want to build a 64GM Framework?

  • I bet the design chosen takes a subtle jab at Lenovo somehow and is chosen specifically because of this, not because it's a better design. I'm sure it will be good enough, but the reasons for choosing that specific design will be a little more personal.

  • Ubuntu (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Immerman ( 2627577 ) on Friday August 19, 2022 @07:51PM (#62805285)

    Perhaps Canonical should talk to Lenovo about the fact that their "broken o" is a slight variation of Ubuntu's much older logo?

  • Isnt the thing with trademarks is you have to defend them like this or you essentially lose it?

    • But it's not a trademark. If it's a functional physical mechanism, it has to be patented.
      • It is absolutely a trademark.
        The complaint is that the power button looks like their trademark, which is undeniably true.
        This is of course unintentional on Framework's part- they were just trying to make a cool looking button. But the possibility of confusion still exists. Lenovo would win in court.

        • It is absolutely a trademark.

          Trademarks have to be *used* as trademarks for them to *be* trademarks. Functional physical systems that randomly resemble one character in a trademark are not trademarks themselves.

          they were just trying to make a cool looking button.

          No, they were not? They were obviously trying to 3D-print a flexible mechanism, and there's not many ways in which you can physically do that. This is clearly the realm of patentable inventions, not of trademarks.

          • so one could make a laptop with an apple logo-looking button?
            • Is merely being apple-shaped as functional as a springy circle with three flexible supports (which is geometrically the mandatory minimum for rotationally symetric supports with zero torsion on the button)? That seems like false equivalence to me, how would the apple shape change its function? Also, the circle with three flexible supports is not even the logo, only a small part of the logo.
              • It's not a false equivalence, it's entirely cogent.
                The rational basis of the Framework design does not differentiate it in some magical fashion.
                Trademark law does not say: You may infringe on a trademark, as long as your use is geometrically sound.

          • Trademarks have to be *used* as trademarks for them to *be* trademarks. Functional physical systems that randomly resemble one character in a trademark are not trademarks themselves.

            The trademark is used as a trademark.
            If you're claiming that a non-trademark use can't be confused with a trademark, legally, you're flat out incorrect.

            No, they were not? They were obviously trying to 3D-print a flexible mechanism

            You're right. They had a single purpose in mind, and it could be achieved no other way than 30 cutouts 60 degrees apart. Cough.

            and there's not many ways in which you can physically do that. This is clearly the realm of patentable inventions, not of trademarks.

            LOL.
            I suppose for a sufficiently constrained definition of the word "many", that might be true.
            What Framework did would be patentable. However, what Lenovo complained about is their trademark. Framework need not be using something

      • Then WTF is a "Wordmark"?

  • Maybe an Apple shape instead? (Score:3)

    by PAjamian ( 679137 ) on Friday August 19, 2022 @09:38PM (#62805419)

    Yeah, let's replace the "O" with an Apple shape, that'll work!

  • The only way to stop Lenovo claiming circular power buttons or Adidas claiming three stripes or all the other greedy corporate bastards is to boycott these bastards until they behave reasonably.

    • We lack the will power to do it. We would even justify it, and rationalize why it is the right thing for them to do.

      But don't you dare to do anything that doesn't match your racial profile or we will use every last bit of our energy making sure you pay for it (even if we don't know wtf it was that you did, or if you even did it in the first place)

  • Framework's Broken O Case

    Complaining about someone else's appearance like that. Lenovo should at least be a gentleman about it....

  • Change the power button to a circle inscribed with "Lenovo Sucks!"

  • Levono did not trademark the broken O, they trademarked the whole word. The broken O out of context is 100% fair game. The claim that it may lead to "customer confusion" is easily dispelled by pointing out the many other uses of a broken O. Levono knows all of this and is just blowing so much hot air that they won't even take further action beyond this nastygram.

  • I'd like to commend Framework for responding positively and creatively to this request. Instead of paying lawyers and going through the hooplah, they get some free advertising with a cool giveaway contest. Well done, folks, very well done.

  • I didn't know Lenovo was still around. They used to make tolerable computers, quite a few decades ago. I thought they went out of business.

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