[Hack&Lube]

I don't think Apple ever paid royalties to the inventor of the qwerty keyboard or the typewriter either. The point is that things like tablets and phones and computers and keyboards and screens will all have similar if not identical appearances and functionality and those things should not be patentable. At most, they should fall under trademark legislation as causing brand confusion if that is arguable.

Basically, issues of appearance should fall under the same umbrella as the famous guitar headstock design lawsuits of the 1970s with Fender and Gibson guitars suing other guitar manufacturers for having a headstock that too closely resembled their famous models. At the same time, they could not sue other guitar makers for having things like 6 strings or cutaways or necks, etc. that all guitars have and are common features.

I don't think Apple is getting injunctions based on this however, but rather claiming that they have patented the concept of a rectangular tablet with a screen entirely.

Or perhaps there should be changes to patent and trademark law that protect the first company to produce and bring a concept to market. Apple didn't invent the gui with icons, Xerox did, but Xerox didn't successfully bring it to market. IBM and Microsoft thought nothing of it until the Macintosh was a successful proof of concept that also succeeded in the marketplace.