Brian Prentice

Australian’s take pride in several things – it’s flora and fauna, it’s successful actors and the fact it’s the only place on Earth where they enjoy eating Vegemite. Originally brought to the world’s attention in the 80’s Men At Work hit “Land Down Under,” it is best described as a foul-smelling dark brown paste which [...]

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Recently, Google was granted US Design Patent No. 599, 372. Ostensibly, this was to protect the design “innovation” of Google’s home page from blatant rip offs.
As I’ve noted, the design innovation of Google.com is basically the white space. That makes this a Seinfeld patent – it’s a patent about nothing. But let’s for a moment [...]

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If I went into an Apple Retail Store and got irate with staff at the Genius Bar because there were no Windows-based PCs being demonstrated you’d think I’d was loco. So I am at a loss to understand all the commotion about Apple’s rejection of the Google Voice iPhone application.
When dissecting the name “Apple App [...]

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Last week I had a chance to speak to Keith Bergelt, CEO of Open Invention Network (OIN), about their recent acquisition of 22 “Linux-focused patents.” The objective of this purchase, as stated in their press release, was to avert “the prospect of these patents being placed in the hands of non-practicing entities …whether or not [...]

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The top shelf of the closet in my home office can be affectionately described as my digital device graveyard. It serves a dual purpose. First, it allows me to avoid the realization that I probably wasted my money buying these things in the first place as I can pretend that an emerging market for vintage [...]

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Google – an organization deeply committed to reforming our broken patent system – has just taken advantage of that very same system to get a patent for…well…nothing.
Google has just been granted US Design Patent No. 599, 372 S for a “graphical user interface for a display screen.” It looks like this:

Note – the design patent [...]

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