back to article Steve Jobs AIRBRUSHED from history by APPLE months before his death

Apple has been awarded a patent for the huge glass door and hallway that welcomes fanbois into its Shanghai shop. The fruity tech giant is known for the extravagant exteriors of its iThing emporiums. But this particular portal looks more like the engine room of a spaceship than a phone store entrance: it's made of curved glass …

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  1. Voland's right hand Silver badge

    Patent law 101

    A patent which does not correctly specify the inventors (regardless of are they live, deceased or ascended) is null and void.

    1. Ian 55

      Re: Patent law 101

      Yes, but who thinks he actually did design it, as opposed to going 'Yes, that looks expensive enough...'?

    2. Pascal Monett Silver badge

      Patent law 102

      A patent is supposed to describe something useful that has never been made before.

      The glass door has prior art.

      Revolving doors have prior art

      Cylinders with logos inside have prior art.

      Why this got patented is just another failure in the system.

      Copyright I could understand. Patent I cannot.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Patent law 102

        It's a design patent, not a patent-patent, therein lies the difference

    3. Homer 1
      Childcatcher

      Prior Art

      Excuse me? Apple claims to have "invented" what now?

      A transparent, cylindrical tower?

      Gee, I've never seen one of those before.

      Apple have turned plagiarism into an art form (maybe they could patent that too, while they're at it).

  2. jake Silver badge

    Somewhere ,,,

    ... Steve's rolling.

  3. Andrew_b65

    At the sound of the siren...

    ...the giant glass revolving door opened and the Eloi marched forth into the store, powerless to resist.

    1. ecofeco Silver badge

      Re: At the sound of the siren...

      Good one.

  4. Mystic Megabyte
    WTF?

    bling blong!

    Now we know why Apple products are so expensive. How much has this door cost in total?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: bling blong!

      "How much has this door cost in total?"

      Don't consider the cost. It's a symbol.

      Unfortunately it's a symbol that the company has lost its way, and cannot see that there is no market or shareholder value from patenting a revolving door a hundred years after such things were invented. In some ways removing the image of Saint Steve is quite fitting, because he was somebody who was hugely product and brand centric.

    2. Marvin the Martian

      Re: "bling blong! Expensive"

      You completely miss the point, this is an incredibly cheap thing.

      Look at the picture, and even better the wider-angle one on http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/10/02/apple_wins_patent_for_entrance_to_retail_store/ --- the whole store is basically a hole in the ground, invisible. But with this tower, including the Apple logo floating some 10meters above the ground, the entire square is Apple-dominated, and visible from afar; say you are standing above the HSBC branch, then you look straight/up to the Apple logo while the shops at the HSBC level invisible or indistinct...

      This turns the situation upside down, where the least-visible underground shop is visually dominant. Like most Apple successes, a well-engineered leveraging of essentially simple visual sleight-of-hand which requires an uncanny understanding of how humans work as social individuals. Whether you like it or feel manipulated --- it's great manipulation.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: "bling blong! Expensive"

        Unless you have taste in which case it's "Urgh, look at that hideously hideous entrance to an invisible apple store" /vomit

        1. Oliver 7

          Re: "bling blong! Expensive"

          I agree, it is truly disgusting! I still don't understand what exactly they were granted a patent for though. Revolving doors have been around a long time now!

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: bling blong!

      >How much has this door cost in total?

      Nothing, it just comes off Apple's (largely notional) tax bill.

  5. heyrick Silver badge

    Oh, the door already exists? Well, don't bother to file a patent over here...it will be its own prior art.

    1. Marvin the Martian

      But this newfangled 'door' thing sounds great.

      You won't believe the drafts we have here along the 'tall rectangular entrance holes to the house'. This 'door' would surely improve our lives; I'll see if I can produce a knockoff with some wood.

      Now to think of something for the 'light entrance points' we have at most rooms, the drafts are just as bad: They're not as tall as the 'entrance holes' but wider. That 'glass' thing might also be an inspiration there.

  6. frank ly

    It looks like ....

    ... the first stage of an evil plan to capture the heart/soul of a TARDIS.

    1. Pookietoo

      Re: It looks like ....

      ... a repository for a dozen evil souls?

  7. Ian Knight

    I was in Shanghai a couple of weeks ago and the cylinder entrance is impressive.

  8. david willis

    Mac Pro

    Anyone notice how it resembles the new mac pro..

  9. Ian 55
    Stop

    Where's the disabled access?

    Or are people with mobility issues not allowed to worship at the House of Apple?

    1. I ain't Spartacus Gold badge

      Re: Where's the disabled access?

      They don't need a lift to get into the building.

      And why would anyone want to leave the loving, warm, appley embrace of a Jesus-Store anyway? Either that or they'll be instantly cured, as soon as they've made their sacrifice to the deity of the shrine...

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    So when are they suing the Louvre...?

    Whose entrance also comprises a suitably blingfested glass structure (albeit a pyramid) leading downstairs to a world famous landmark....? Surely this outrageous French luddites, with their so called 'works of art' should be treated with the contempt they deserve and forced to conform to the New World Order??

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    So....

    basically, Apple have patented a greenhouse?

  12. nico78

    gives the expression "turning in one's grave" a new dimension

  13. Cheesenough
    Meh

    Is there a way out of the store?

    There is no mention of how you exit the store - does the entrance serve as an exit as well or are the thousands of Apple fanbois trapped in the hole living off iPad packaging?

  14. groovyf

    @Cheesenough

    It does indeed function as an exit as well. Have been into the place a couple of times. I do have to say it looks pretty fantastic when viewing from the outside when lit up in an evening.

  15. FunkyEric
    Mushroom

    Jeeez

    It's only a fucking door for christs sake. Think I'll go off and patent the tree or something equally stupid.

  16. Alistair
    Coat

    I found this book ....

    Glass etching for dummies.

    I wonder ......

  17. sjsmoto
    Joke

    Microsoft

    To enter a Microsoft Store do you swipe from left to right?

    1. Pascal Monett Silver badge
      Coat

      You don't enter a Microsoft Store.

      As soon as you swipe, it bluescreens and you're stuck outside.

  18. Carl

    Folly

    In the 19th century, industrial revolution era entrepreneurs would regularly build things like this.

    They became known later as "follies": a reference to the ultimate uselessness and waste of money of this immense ego-fuelled money-wank.

    Now I detest Bill Gates as much as the next Open Sourcerer but at least some of his money-wanks are vaguely altruistic if you look at them "just so".

    But a patent on a door? Seriously?

  19. Anonymous Coward
    Gimp

    Has Steve Jobs become to The Register what Diana is to The Express?

  20. Eddy Ito

    Bootstrap note FYI

    The patent they meant to reference is 7,165,362 (PDF).

  21. FutureShock999

    Only one thing to call it...

    It's an Apple. It has a hole. It must be...a WORMHOLE.

  22. codeusirae
    Facepalm

    re: Dying billionaire biz tyrant AIRBRUSHED from history by APPLE ..

    "An early design patent [PDF] for the cylindrical doorway, filed in July 2010, has few details about the structure beyond some sketches. Steve Jobs is listed among its inventors. It was submitted shortly before the Shanghai store opened to the public in mid-2010, and was approved by US officials in March 2012. But the billionaire was missing from the list of applicants in the patent granted yesterday" ..

    Perhaps the reason his name is missing is he wasn't involved in drawing up the patent as he was too busy dying of pancreatic cancer. In you desperation to find anything derogatory to say about Apple, you're really grasping here. Where's the picture of Jobs grave that should accompany these stories?

  23. attoman

    When the CEO's name is on the patent its ripe for being challenged and thrown out.

    Jobs was a great marketer not an inventor and his Jobs as sole inventor patents show that. There is nothing wrong with design patents. they just don't represent technological insight and scientific advancement.

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