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Re:The Loading Screen Game Patent Finally Expires by ikeboy on Saturday December 05, 2015 @02:09PM (#10682900)
Well, imagine apple puts all information necessary to build an iPhone into a patent. Then Samsung builds a phone identical to the iPhone, except it's green. If the patent specifically mentioned black, gold, but not green, then a green phone might not infringe.

My point is that too specific can also be a drawback.

Re:The Loading Screen Game Patent Finally Expires by nitrogen on Saturday December 05, 2015 @04:05PM (#10683271)
Too specific is only a drawback to the patent holder. And a single-patent iPhone patent would cost a fortune to file anyway. Having overly specific patents is not remotely a drawback to the rest of us.
Re:The Loading Screen Game Patent Finally Expires by ikeboy on Saturday December 05, 2015 @04:08PM (#10683277)
If apple is discouraged from inventing an iPhone because they won't be able to defend the patent against minor changes, that's a loss to society.

If you concede that patents in general are good, then you should also agree that sometimes, it's better for a patent to be general.

Re:The Loading Screen Game Patent Finally Expires by nitrogen on Sunday December 06, 2015 @01:07PM (#10685948)
I'm more in the "everything is a remix" camp, at least as far as software and design patents are concerned. If Apple didn't create the iPhone, someone else would have made something similar.