Contingency Patent Licensing and Enforcement for Inventors
888-861-8484

How Not to Infringe the iPhone and iPad

As a public service, we present Apple's handy guide to not infringing the iPad or iPhone with your tablet PC or smartphone (Hat tip to ITworld.com):

"For the iPhone design, alternative smartphone designs include: front surfaces that are not black or clear; front surfaces that are not rectangular, not flat, and without rounded corners; display screens that are more square than rectangular or not rectangular at all; display screens that are not centered on the front surface of the phone and that have substantial lateral borders; speaker openings that are not horizontal slots with rounded ends and that are not centered above the display screen; front surfaces that contain substantial adornment; and phones without bezels at all or very different looking bezels that are not thin, uniform, and with an inwardly sloping profile.

"[A]lternate tablet computer designs include: overall shapes that are not rectangular with four flat sides or that do not have four rounded corners; front surfaces that are not completely flat or clear and that have substantial adornment; thick frames rather than a thin rim around the front surface; and profiles that are not thin relative to the D’889 or that have a cluttered appearance."

These helpful hints come from the public redacted version of a legal brief Apple filed as part of its litigation against Samsung.

So smartphone manufacturers, now you know how not to get sued by Apple!