Steve Jobs may have passed away more than three years ago, but he is still having patents awarded today as applications work their way through the system and old patents are renewed with updates. MIT Technology Review notes that of the 458 patents credited to Jobs, almost a third of them have been awarded since his death in October 2011.
Since his death in 2011 from pancreatic cancer, the former Apple CEO has won 141 patents. That’s more than most inventors win during their lifetimes.
His patent documents act as a record of Apple’s history, says the site …
The very first patent won by Steve Jobs, filed in 1980 and approved in 1983, was simply titled ‘Personal Computer’ and covered what was to become a familiar design. One of the more recent was the iconic glass cube design of Apple’s Fifth Avenue store, awarded in August of this year.
Perhaps more surprisingly, new patents are being filed today on which Jobs is named as an inventor.
Some of [these] offer a window on his personal interests, like a 260-foot super yacht, Venus, that he commissioned and helped design. Only this March, a company based on Cape Cod, Savant Systems, listed Jobs as the lead inventor on a patent application covering the idea of using a tablet like the iPad to steer a sea vessel.
Despite his prolific record, FOSS Patents’ Florian Müller says it is debatable whether Jobs can be considered one of the greatest inventors, as so many of the patents related to designs rather than technologies.
Yukari Iwatani Kane – author of Haunted Empire, Apple After Steve Jobs (a book described as ‘nonsense’ by Tim Cook) – also noted that Steve Jobs’ name was often included among scores of others on patent applications. However, Tim Wasko, who developed the interface for the iPod, says that the feedback, comments and suggestions made by Jobs were “worthy of him being on the patent.”
The upcoming Steve Jobs biopic recently moved from Sony Pictures to Universal. After early reports that first Leonardo DiCaprio and later Christian Bale were to play Jobs, Michael Fassbender is now expected to play the lead, with Natalie Portman tipped to play daughter Lissa Brennan-Jobs.
Via Business Insider
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good
woah! He was one incredible man.
” FOSS Patents’ Florian Müller says it is debatable whether Jobs can be considered one of the greatest inventors, as so many of the patents related to designs rather than technologies.”
While Florian is pretty good in his field, I totally disagree with him on Apple patents. Most of the patents are NOT just about the look of something but the technology that makes the look work. Sadly, both he and the european legal group share this idea stuck in the 1900’s. This problem affects much of european governments, sadly.
Just my opinion here, but its a different world than in the 1900’s and it keeps changing every day. Those who cannot see this are doomed to fail due to their lack of sight.
Patents were originally issued for INVENTIONS – actual physical devices which did something – like e.g. a mouse-trap, effectively beginning in England in 1624. Its the patents for IDEAS that seem to cause so much trouble and litigation these days.
Physical devices – Inventions… Like buggy whips, horse blinders, and bumpers on cars. Yep. cool.
I have to say,,, so everything in the world done with software which makes hardware work is worthless yet only the dumb hardware is patentable?? Yep europe is stuck in the horse and buggy age. But they seem happy there. LOL
Patent for general ideas are mostly worthless. Totally true. But when you notate that the screen senses your finger, calcualates a center of touch, and measures the distance between two points, then calculates the screen enlargement as those two points move apart….. Not an idea, but a functional thing implemented by Apple then copied by every smart phone in the world today. Just saying.
OH wait, should we advance the laws so they make sense now, or just live in the past?? Given the current congress, I think we are stuck with buggy whips… Just a thought.
“Not an idea, but a functional thing implemented by Apple then copied by every smart phone in the world today. Just saying.”
Yep, because that totally didn’t exist before Apple…. oh wait….
How does one separate design from technology? As Jony Ive recently said you cannot separate design and engineering. Design is as much about how something works as the aesthetic look of it.
Which is stupid nonsense. Of course you can engineer something without a design and it would still function.