USPTO neglects to hit the "obvious" button on Google's newest patent
Patent number D533561 was granted to Google on Tuesday, after a 5 and a half year battle. The examiner is also responsible for such deep and philosophical patent examinations as "Foot and toe washer", "Combined ice scraper and brush" and, "H style harness doggie vest."
Depending on the angle at which you hold this patent up to the light, Google may own the ticket for having a search box smack-dab in the middle of a page, or the concept of having two buttons under the search bar. Really, given the state of U.S. patent litigation, what you have here is a license to annoy, molest, harass and waste the legal fund of any company who dare tick off a Google lawyer. If asked for comment, I imagine even the guy who "invented" the combined ice scrapper and brush would think this one is a little over the top. Whatever happened to, "Don't be evil"?
Now, if you'll excuse me; I'm very busy working on my own design for a search box with *three* buttons below. Soon, I will build a third search button powerful enough to enslave you all! Muahahahahaaahahah, cough, ahem.
I don't know if this is a labor of love or merely the brainchild of four very gifted games designers, but Level Up is a really weird mash-up of gaming elements that you have probably never seen in a Flash game before.
Let's start with the premise itself: Groundhog Day meets Memento. The game experience revolves around 'days': you explore the world and the clock slowly ticks towards the evening. You bounce around picking up gems and talking to the denizens of 'Level Upland'. Eventually you feel tired and head back to ...
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Anwin said 1:12AM on 9-03-2009
Hahahaha... that's the Indian way of saying lol.
Reply
Andy said 1:58AM on 9-03-2009
Well, D533561 is not a patent! D stands for design!
How about the author get a real job instead of writing this bs.
Reply
ahbi said 2:08AM on 9-03-2009
Oh, pauh
It is a DESIGN patent, not a real Utility patent.
Design patents are used for stuff like making your special designer furniture protected.
Who the F cares?
The big thing is that it took Google 5+ years to get this.
I assumed for Design patents they just gave them to you as soon as you paid your money.
There are near worthless.
Reply
Brian said 2:08AM on 9-03-2009
What a terrible article. Where does it say Google owns the patent to: "...having a search box smack-dab in the middle of a page, or the concept of having two buttons under the search bar."?
You failed to provide a link to a PATENT APPLICATION that clearly states this. I recommend reading the original article that gave you this information and put a little more effort into paraphrasing it.
This smells like Grade D linkbait, to me.
Reply
cmsb55 said 2:55AM on 9-03-2009
It looks like Grant Robertson has found one more stupid way to write a blog post.
Reply
Grant Robertson said 10:16AM on 9-03-2009
Comment Hate; When you care enough to send the very best.
Biomech said 1:14PM on 9-03-2009
Dude, don't get started again...
Rocketboy said 6:47AM on 9-03-2009
Whoopie-do-da. Google is doing nothing but refreshing the Design Patent on the way their site looks, an update to the one they did in 2004.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Design_patent
Oh Noes! Fonts and The Statue of Liberty are also covered under Design Patents. I guess nobody can use letters or make statues of women either.
Oh and Brian... yes, there is a link to the application, but there is no traditional "Read" link.
Reply
Rocketboy said 10:11AM on 9-03-2009
Nevermind, it looks like someone removed the link... I guess someone doesn't want to know how wrong this article is... Here's a link to one of Google's design patents, that was granted in 2006, which is similar to the one Grant's all giggly about.
http://www.google.com/patents/about?id=rqR9AAAAEBAJ
Rocketboy said 10:12AM on 9-03-2009
Doh! Sorry, my mistake. I thought the link in the article was to a different patent.
skerns1 said 12:33PM on 9-03-2009
Scrap-per is one who scraps. A scra-per is a thing for scraping.
Reply
jay4 said 1:00PM on 9-03-2009
Does anyone else thing that the Google homepage looks dated now? Especially with Bing having a large picture there?
Reply
Kevin said 12:15AM on 9-04-2009
No, I think the exact opposite actually. The big picture on the Bing page makes it seem like it's from the 1999-2000 era. Who wants pseudo-eye candy when all you want is to search? It's distracting in my view.
sitruc said 1:21AM on 9-04-2009
Who cares about searching when you can have decisions made?
James said 1:29PM on 9-03-2009
So does this mean they can go after LMGTFY?
Reply
glacia said 2:07PM on 9-05-2009
As someone else pointed out it's a DESIGN patent and meaningless. To infringe someone would have to make their interface EXACTLY like Google's. Even minutely different and Google would be laughed at.
Reply