<story><title>Amazon granted patent for taking photos against a white background</title><url>http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&amp;Sect2=HITOFF&amp;p=1&amp;u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-adv.htm&amp;r=1&amp;f=G&amp;l=50&amp;d=PALL&amp;S1=08676045&amp;OS=PN/08676045&amp;RS=PN/08676045</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>afternooner</author><text>I like how all the comments so far are defending the fact that the patent isn&amp;#x27;t quite as broad as the title suggests.  Sure, they are patenting taking a picture against a white background when perpendicular against a... Who gives a fuck.  This is a patent to take a picture against a whit background.  There is no invention here.  The only thing novel or unique is the fact is that some genius realized that with enough legal terms, you could patent a photo shoot.  Shit America, get it together.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>higherpurpose</author><text>Apparently, approving such patents makes the USPTO &amp;quot;efficient&amp;quot;, by getting rid of the backlog (as if that should be the main goal of the Patent Office?!):&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20140505/11310627129/yes-president-obamas-patent-office-started-approving-basically-all-patent-applications-again.shtml&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.techdirt.com&amp;#x2F;articles&amp;#x2F;20140505&amp;#x2F;11310627129&amp;#x2F;yes-pr...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;You know what would make USPTO even &lt;i&gt;more efficient&lt;/i&gt; than approving almost everything? &lt;i&gt;Rejecting&lt;/i&gt; almost everything.</text></comment>
<story><title>Amazon granted patent for taking photos against a white background</title><url>http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&amp;Sect2=HITOFF&amp;p=1&amp;u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-adv.htm&amp;r=1&amp;f=G&amp;l=50&amp;d=PALL&amp;S1=08676045&amp;OS=PN/08676045&amp;RS=PN/08676045</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>afternooner</author><text>I like how all the comments so far are defending the fact that the patent isn&amp;#x27;t quite as broad as the title suggests.  Sure, they are patenting taking a picture against a white background when perpendicular against a... Who gives a fuck.  This is a patent to take a picture against a whit background.  There is no invention here.  The only thing novel or unique is the fact is that some genius realized that with enough legal terms, you could patent a photo shoot.  Shit America, get it together.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>lotsofmangos</author><text>They do have this clause to try and expand the breadth of the claims:&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;It should be emphasized that the above-described embodiments of the present disclosure are merely possible examples of implementations set forth for a clear understanding of the principles of the disclosure. Many variations and modifications may be made to the above-described embodiment(s) without departing substantially from the spirit and principles of the disclosure. All such modifications and variations are intended to be included herein within the scope of this disclosure and protected by the following claims.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;I am not a lawyer so do not know how much weight such clauses have, but it would seem to be trying for a lot more than just the specifically described arrangement.</text></comment>