Lawsuits, Red Hat, yummy....

[Bill McGonigle]

On Oct 17, 2007, at 22:47, Greg Rundlett wrote:

> Due to the patent system, the world is limited to basically two large
> consumer products companies that sell coffee.  Why? because canisters
> come in round or square shapes (triangular being rather impractical --
> although maybe there is an idea I should patent).  Those shapes are
> patented and so nobody else can package coffee in a canister without
> violating a patent.  Proctor and Gamble (or Procter & Gamble depending
> on how they want to hide similar patents) has the patent on round [1]
> (think Folgers coffee.), and Kraft has the patent on square (think
> Maxwell House coffee).  Why does society need to increase the cost of
> innovation and discovery so that there can be monopolies on the shape
> of a coffee canister?  Actually, they own the design of the container
> for any purpose -- not just coffee.  This is just a simple example;
> you could get a lot more serious on the topic.
>
> [1] http://www.google.com/patents?id=N3QOAAAAEBAJ&dq=patent:D480312

Is this the patent you meant to link to?  Because:

* it's from 2003,
* it's for a round plastic container with a molded-in handle
* I'm unaware of any coffee companies that have gone out of business  
since 2003 because of it
* I buy coffee from other companies that use round metal containers  
(aka coffee cans)
* there's a century or more of prior art on 'food in cans'
* the minced garlic I buy comes in a square plastic container with  
molded-in handle

Either I'm misunderstanding or your example is completely invalid. :)

-Bill

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