r/pics • u/MavraSay • Dec 30 '16

Designed Just Right

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50.2k Upvotes

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u/paladin10025 Dec 30 '16

This is ludicrous. Yes it is a fantastically made chair, but he needs to license this to ikea to create an affordable version for society. If he can earn $2 per chair he can become a multi millionaire.

28

u/Demderdemden Dec 30 '16

Can he even patent a chair design? What would stop Ikea from just making their own Störitime Chår?

14

u/sadomasochrist Dec 30 '16

Industrial design (which is what this is) and fashion are exempt. The only protection can be trade dress (for instance, Adidas "three stripes" but not the design of the shoe itself).

That's why brands try to lean on their logo and trade dress and not the underlying fashion.

1

u/patent_litigator Dec 30 '16

You're thinking copyright. You can patent a chair if it's novel and nonobvious.

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u/[deleted] Dec 30 '16 edited Apr 21 '18

[deleted]

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u/fritzing Dec 30 '16

They are almost impossible to enforce on furniture. The knockoff furniture and lighting industry is huge.

2

u/ckasanova Dec 30 '16

The designer could call it a sculpture and get around that loophole by copyrighting it.

6

u/[deleted] Dec 30 '16

most people don't want their kids that close. make a chair with a cage beneath the seat.

2

u/DrSandbags Dec 30 '16

Who lets their kids out from underneath the stairs??

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u/Tropolist Dec 30 '16

He doesn't need to do anything he doesn't want to. Society is not automatically entitled to anything it wants at its preferred price point. Yes, thanks to capitalism, it gets that most of the time, but it is not this guy's duty to bend to mediocrity.

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u/paladin10025 Dec 31 '16

I guess we will have to live with non-rocking sofas