Pravetz or Apple ][e

I don’t know about you guys, but my first computer was not exactly mine.

They were giving computers from school or from the youngster science clubs to keep  for the summer (and to learn new stuff).

Most of us were simply using them for games, and rarely do any science.

Most.

I was writing programs in Basic and preparing for the Programmer’s “Olympics” held every year.

This one ugly thing in the picture is named Pravetz 8M and is absolutely shameless copy of Apple ][e.

(image source: Ventzislav Sivkov @ Facebook)

Later, the socialist party issued money for stealing and copying Apple III and named it Pravetz 8A. But this is quite irrelevant.

8A was quite good but never took the same market share as the 8M unit.

And communist party DID NOT care how many and what parts exactly Apple computer did patent and demanded licenses for.

Same happened later with Pravetz 16 (Actually a 4.77 MHz IBM PC/XT replica).

But IBM were never such patent fanatics as Apple computers were. Everyone could copy the IBM PC at the time.

I am curious, did Apple actually PAID to the creator of the door latch? Or they claim they truly invented “Slide to unlock” ?!

(Door latch image source: Wetsun@Flickr)

Can anyone also patent “Common sense” and demand license fees on using it?

You will be amazed, how many meaningless things get patented every year, just to make their patentees rich.

In the UK patent office you can see

• Intestine gas collector
• Ulterior pouch
• Horse powered bus
• Umbrella hat (already saw chineese counterfeit this summer)
• Double gloves for couples
• and even more totally pointless things, such as spider staircase.

The truth is –  too much patents are so bad for society as too few (or any at all).

We can’t afford to rob a genius, because he will keep the good ideas for himself.

But in the same time – why should anyone patent a 2-ply toilet paper?

We all use 2 or 3 napkins to blow and wipe out our nose in the winter.

We all use 2 or 3 plies of toilet paper to clean us after defecation…

It is common sense and Not a genius idea.

Maybe next patent from Apple should be “Rotate to unlock” and all ship and vault door producers must pay license fees to Apple from now on.