Amazon successfully patents photography against a white background

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Amazon successfully patents photography against a white background
http://mobile.geek.com/latest/25333...atents-photography-against-a-white-background
Stephen Colbert had a clip about this subject too.
"Amazon's Audacious Photography Patent "
http://on.cc.com/1v8qK0O
Comedy Central videos only stream in the USA though unless you use a Proxy

This patent is a bit much, it's pretty much the norm to display dashcam (or other) products with a white background.

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http://mobile.geek.com/latest/25333...atents-photography-against-a-white-background

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For a arm of government that comes under such intense and often hostile scrutiny, you’d think the US Patent Office would try to err on the side of caution when it comes to iffy new patents. It’s still infamous for the many hundreds of perpetual motion machines still sitting in the patent room, but its approach to strategic patenting is much more damaging than a few crackpots could ever be. Allowing patents to be used to stifle innovation fundamentally contradicts the entire thesis of the Patent Office: to protect innovation and allow inventors to be rewarded for their efforts.

This week, the photography blogger Udi Tirosh noticed a new patent put forward by Amazon, simply called Studio Arrangement, and it really seems to set a new bar for frivolous copyright. The subject is…photography against a white background. Really. In fairness, the definition is a bit more specific than that, requiring a semi-specific lighting setup that might legitimize this patent if that setup weren’t so utterly normal. This is the sort of lighting setup that most photography students learn early in their training.


The primary patent illustration.

There are more finicky aspects of the patent as well, but they’re almost absurd in how arbitrary they are; Amazon specifies the size of lens that must be used, even the ISO and f-stop settings. These settings presumably allow easy portraiture with a pure white background, and the patent description specifically states that their method does not require any post-processing such as green screen removal.

What that means is that Amazon has essentially managed to patent the best camera settings for a particular type of shot. Conscientious portrait artists might now find their ideal settings, then click one setting a single notch off of perfect so as to avoid being sued.

Though, of course, this patent could never be adequately enforced. Unless Amazon plans on busting shoots in progress, this seems like a rather pointless exercise — except for the lawyers who billed the hour, of course. It’s unlikely this patent got the Jeff Bezos stamp of approval, or anything close to it; the higher-up at the online retail giant probably view this issue as a headache. The specificity of the patent might just let it squeak past the chorus of objections now rising, but that same specificity is what makes it so conceptually absurd.

There is an idea in patent law called “art,” which seems to apply here. Basically, if you can provide any material (art) showing that the proposed patent has been described elsewhere and earlier, the patent is not valid. If it decides to defend this patent, Amazon will argue that the requirements for lens size and camera settings set it apart from any of a few hundred intro photography textbooks.
 
Silly and rediculous.
 
Yeah i saw this a while ago :rolleyes:

Now i am not much for pointing fingers, but the Americans need to take a close look at ther patent offices.

PS. Do this patent allso contail abnormal rounded corners betweel floor and wall, instead of the normally 90 degree angle used there. :D
 
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