Apple Files for OLED Keyboard Patent 188
pegdhcp writes to mention that Apple has applied for a patent on a 'dynamically controlled keyboard' with OLED keys. This may seem remarkably familiar, since an OLED keyboard has been bandied about by Art Lebedev studios for quite a while now. "while the Optimus Maximus is a bit expensive, Apple could certainly mass-produce something similar for less money, perhaps bringing the price into reality for most users. Lebedev has, however, apparently applied for several patents for the Optimus, so it's unclear just what Apple is up to, or what would happen if the company were ever to release such a product."
Patent Fight *or* License from Art. Lebedev? (Score:5, Informative)
Surely that beats a costly Patent fight?
What about Prior Art?
Re: Optimus Keyboard With OLED Display Keys http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/07/14/1335215 [slashdot.org]
Re: Optimus OLED Keyboard Pre-Orders Start Dec. 12 http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/11/19/1911235 [slashdot.org]
I would love to see this technology in an affordable Laptop/Notebook keyboard. (Particularly one that has open source GPL'd base drivers.)
Apple and IBM (Score:3, Informative)
Watch the "prior art" screaming start (Score:5, Informative)
Until you've read the actual claims in a patent, it is impossible to know what Apple is actually attempting to patent. The fact that the description is of an OLED keyboard doesn't mean that prior art will negate the claims any more than the existence of LCD screens would necessarily invalidate a patent on an LCD screen.
Now to settle in and watch the ill-informed rants about patent law multiply like rodents. Anyone have any popcorn?
Re:apple fanboys (Score:1, Informative)
Patents are for IMPLEMENTATIONS, not products. Someone can have the same product as me, AND have it for years prior to my own, but I can still patent my own way of making the thing, assuming no one else has used that particular implementation. As the GP said, believing a patent can't be valid just because someone else has a similar product is a massive fallacy - there are often many different ways to make the same product (some more ingenius, less obvious, or just downright cheaper, than others).
Re:apple fanboys (Score:5, Informative)
every keycap.
Now please tell me the difference to that.
This is not old but ancient stuff.
G!
MACC
What about Prior Art (Score:4, Informative)
That one takes a 5 minute patent search.... (Score:3, Informative)
That's all 25 claims dead right there.
Re:Watch the "prior art" screaming start (Score:3, Informative)
Process Patents (Score:3, Informative)
One family of patents is the process patent. The invention is the manufacturing process, not the item. Whether or not the items manufactured are ordinary is irrelevant.
Re:a large "iphone" keyboard (Score:1, Informative)
Re:apple fanboys (Score:2, Informative)
As the other reply also stated, they could have been (and were) monochromatic. Monochromatic LCD displays (the type with "floating" grey elements against a non-illuminated reflective silver background), have been around since the early 1970s and were in widespread- and cheap- use by the early 1980s.
And yes, smartass, these were also "liquid crystal displays", and commonly referred to as LCDs. Up until a few years ago, this is the type of display people would have thought you meant when you said "LCD".
In other words, GP was right, you're wrong and...
Re:apple fanboys (Score:3, Informative)
Re:apple fanboys (Score:4, Informative)
1984! , even earlier than I remembered.
The first image from the top
http://www.e3-keys.com/images/image012.jpg [e3-keys.com]
is the one I had in mind.
G!
MACC
Re:context specfic layouts (Score:3, Informative)
Check it out. They even show right on the web site the profiles for Adobe CS programs.
Also, check out the demo page:
http://www.artlebedev.com/everything/optimus/demo/ [artlebedev.com]
The images can and do change on the fly as needed.
Apple is attempting to patent prior art.