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Re:Wil Shipley on Apple's Patent Enforcement by sern on Wednesday March 03, 2010 @10:25AM (#1164255)
You can register ("patent") a design.
Re:Wil Shipley on Apple's Patent Enforcement by appathy on Wednesday March 03, 2010 @10:28AM (#1164261)
Design patents are totally different than regular patents though. I have never heard of anyone getting sued because of a design patent.
Re:Wil Shipley on Apple's Patent Enforcement by AlfaWolph on Wednesday March 03, 2010 @01:17PM (#1164687)
One instance I know of is when Gibson Guitars sued Paul Reed Smith Guitars over the single-cut design Gibson uses for its Les Paul guitars (and won).
Re:Wil Shipley on Apple's Patent Enforcement by KT on Wednesday March 03, 2010 @11:23AM (#1164408)
No, you get sued then because of trade dress.
Re:Wil Shipley on Apple's Patent Enforcement by bitwize on Wednesday March 03, 2010 @11:23AM (#1164409)
Try putting your own beverage in bottles shaped like Coke's iconic curve bottle. Then you'll hear of it.
Re:Wil Shipley on Apple's Patent Enforcement by mechanical_fish on Wednesday March 03, 2010 @11:36AM (#1164451)
That's trademark law. Not the same thing as patent law, which in turn is not the same thing as copyright law.
Re:Wil Shipley on Apple's Patent Enforcement by bitwize on Friday March 05, 2010 @07:18PM (#1170869)
The design of a functional thing may be covered under a design patent; and indeed the Coke bottle shape is covered by such a patent.

Trademark law refers primarily to the design of nonfunctional things such as logos, the Deep Note sound, etc.