Smartphone Device with a Folding Screen?

A variation of the OLED called the FOLED (Folding Organic Light Emmitting Diode) is flexible and can bend. Im not sure if it can fold all the way like paper. Perhaps instead they would just use two different screens close together to appear as one.

This is another example on how outrageously ludicrous can the USA patent system be, and how intolerably greedy do corporations get when allowed.

Palm have not developed themselves the folding sreen, nor are they going to develop it. Palm is not in the screen business, nor will they ever be, but they are trying to cash on the work of others, keeping the legitimate owners of the invention (the folding screen itself) from freely marketing it.

Moreover, they are trying to do so by just getting a patent an OBVIOUS use of a technology that is not even theirs: Hey, lets fold the screen so that it takes less space! Big deal.

Sadly, Palm is not the only punk in this town: there are countless examples of corporation patenting obvious uses of things invented by others, or even things not invented yet.

Like disgusting parasites, these organisms are just lurking in the tech ecosystem waiting for a healthy animal to pass by and then suck its blood.

If I had the money and the nerve, I could patent things like "Traveling backwards in time with an airplane in order to achieve a zero-seconds trip", or "Using a direct neurovisual connection to let consumers view movies and media".

Timetravel! Neural links! Wow, am I a genius!

> And yes, a folding screen is a innovation in my mindset.

Sure, it is, but it is not Palm's innovation, but whoever's DESIGNS it. Palm are just trying to LEECH the real innovators.

> Get soem time out of your petri-dish socialist campus and see what it makes survive on your own.

I'm doing fine in my petri dish, thanks. What makes you survive on your own? Oh, yes, you're not on your own, Clueless Anonymous keeps you in good company.

The world would be so much better without greed err patents.

Absolutely. Because, as we all know, the mere act of inventing is its own reward. Who cares if you never make any money at it?

Patents are cool. Software Patents are FSCKING ridiculous.

Then there are the patents that exist before their time. I'm all for the patent system. Anyone against is mostly from socialist roots where "nobody really owns anything." That was the mindset that killed the old Soviet system and now the flunkies came Stateside trying to spew it again to get as much of a free ride off others works as they can.

Frankly, I see this patent expiring before the technology matures to use it. Remember, Apple took a nosedive in 1996 when most of the original patents that made the Mac unique expired. For example: multiple monitors for a single PC, a rotating monitor top and an automatically ejecting disk media mechanism.

Soviet flunkies trying to undermine the patent system? Good god, talk about lunatic paranoia. Try laying off the Faux News Channel. Mostly, people who object to the patent system do so because the Patent Office has a habit of issuing insane numbers of junk patents like 'Use of a hand in a writing system" or that one for a "multi-function card" that the company claimed covered all handheld computers. Usually, these junk patents are issued with absolutely no effort on the part of the filing company--contrary to popular belief, you don't need to actually create something to patent it. You can just file for a patent on an idea, using the vaguest language in the world, and they'll give it to you. These junk patents then become fodder for lawsuits which tie up the courts, and often cost companies who make actual products a lot of money in the course of defending themselves against a land-grabber who's just out to try and score a quick settlement.

I agree with AdamaDBrown in terms of the Patent Office. They are understaffed and essentially rubber stamp patents. What do they care? The lawyers and judges will resolve all the problems, right? But this is one problem. The whole intellectual property system in the US (and many other countries) requires a complete overhaul that balances the rights of the patent holder with the fair use rights of the consumer. Patents or IP should never ever be used as a means of stifiling innovation.

Gmail invites:

http://gmail.google.com/gmail/a-eb40abce49-7596a94814-da043881c1
http://gmail.google.com/gmail/a-eb40abce49-f4164f6017-df2d71ef33
http://gmail.google.com/gmail/a-eb40abce49-e8d8370036-9cd6d18c99

I Am Canadian

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http://the-wastebasket.blogspot.com

I guess you might be regretting your choice of subject once you re-read your message to realise that two 160x160 screens would make one 320x160 screen...

;-O

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Sony CLIE UX100: 128 MB real RAM, OLED screen. All the PDA anyone really ever wanted.

The philodox has spoken.

It would be nice, however, if he'd come up with a new idea himself.

Gekko,

If Palm is doomed, why are you still here?

Why waste time posting to an internet forum for a doomed handheld platform?

I wasn't shooting the messenger. I just pointed out that the messenger is a one-hit wonder.

the point was a patent for a mythical, vaporware, in-theory, on-paper only device is one thing - and actually having the talent, skills, and competency to build and bring such an animal to market is quite another. Any schmo like a 'captain hair' can scribble ideas on the back of a napkin. And this is the equivalent of scribbles on the back of a napkin.

Since when is Dell copying PalmOne? Dell has WiFi, dual slots, 3D accelerators, VGA, and insanely low prices. Show me where they're copying PalmOne.

Well, let me come to the defense of designers. You never know what they are really capable of, if you go simply by what gets to the store shelf. They could come up with something breathtakingly fantastic that would sell like hotcakes: only to have it shot down by some dope in Marketing. Or someone with a first name of Eric...

Well put.

But then again, lawsuits are a great way for inept companies to make business. After spending millions of dollars over the years fighting bogus lawsuits, maybe Palm now wants a piece of the action.

As an example, Be probably made more by suing Microsoft than they did selling BeOS.

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Sony CLIE UX100: 128 MB real RAM, OLED screen. All the PDA anyone really ever wanted.

I unfortunately forget where (IEEE Spectrum?) but I saw a mini-article on a flexible display not unlike the flexible circuit boards that currently exist everywhere (like inside your printer attached to the print heads). Thus one doesn't need to FOLD the display but merely bend it, like into a "teardrop" shape (display side on the inside; open the teardrop and voila!).

I don't know what was actually patented by the patent covered by this article (not interested enough to read the actual patent!) but it wasn't the idea of a flexible/bendable display...

Doing a quickie Google search on "flexible displays" reveals all...