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Comment by markkanof | Hacker News Reader

Interesting as Apple clearly copied the look and feel of Wil's application Delicious Library of use in thier iBook store application. Granted I doubt Wil holds a patent on that interface, but it does seem a bit hypocritical.

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Interesting as Apple clearly copied the look and feel of Wil's application Delicious Library of use in thier iBook store application.

Either that or somebody at Apple once went to a library. Wood shelves holding books... profound.

Either that or somebody at Apple once went to a library.

If you read more into it, the iPad team is where 3 Delicious Monster employees ended up, including the lead designer.

You can't really patent an interface. An interface can be part of a patent, but not a patent by itself.

You can register ("patent") a design.

Design patents are totally different than regular patents though. I have never heard of anyone getting sued because of a design patent.

No, you get sued then because of trade dress.

Try putting your own beverage in bottles shaped like Coke's iconic curve bottle. Then you'll hear of it.

That's trademark law. Not the same thing as patent law, which in turn is not the same thing as copyright law.

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.

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).

Graphic concepts too vague to even claim copyright of are not equal to patents. Not saying that makes this right on Apple's part, just saying it's a world of difference.

I assumed this is licensed from Shipley or they had Shipley do it for them. Apple is good at covert acquisitions and partnerships.

Edit - Looks like i'm wrong. (easier to edit than respond to 4 other posts)

Shipley wasn't involved. He posted some angry tweets when he first saw it.

"Angry"? IIRC he said they'd clearly copied it and that he'd be pissed if they were using it in a directly competing product. He also acknowledged that there's hardly a better visual metaphor for representing a collection of books.

He had a tweet earlier today explicitly saying that Apple copied him, and that he wouldn't have sued even if he'd had a patent. Seems he's removed the tweet now, though (can't find it) so you'll just have to take my word for it I guess...

Nope. In the Washington Post Shipley says that is not the case: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01...

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