Apple Forced to a bad battery case design from "Mophie" case patents.

[Ravener]

Origional post: http://www.theverge.com/2015/12/8/9872238/is-apples-smart-battery-case-mophie-patents 

 

It's fair to say that Apple's new iPhone Smart Battery Case is not the most attractive product the company has ever released. Like every other charging case, it adds an extra inch of thickness to the bottom of the phone, making it hard to use headphones (including Apple's own Beats line) and the battery simply sticks out as a rectangular bulge. It's like Apple designed it so intensely they forgot to design it at all.

But there's another element at play here: the biggest name in battery cases is Mophie, and Mophie has tons of patents on the design and functionality of these things. Reading through a few, it's hard not to see Apple's case as being deliberately designed around Mophie's patents — including that unsightly bulge.

 

Here, for example, is Mophie patent #9,172,070, which was just granted on October 15th. The first claim lays out, well, a Mophie battery case — and any other case that has all of these (paraphrased) elements would infringe on Mophie's patent:

1. A lower case that contains a battery and sides that extend along a mobile device, with internal and external power connectors, and an on / off switch.

2. A removable upper case.

So really any case where a phone slides into the bottom case and there's a cap on top infringes this one. You will note the Apple case is just a single piece, with a top portion that flops back instead of coming off. More elegant, in some ways, but perhaps more importantly, also outside the claims of this patent. (There's also no on / off switch, but really, what Apple product has an on / off switch?)

And that's just one patent. Mophie has an entire suite of patents on this kind of two-part design — here's #8,971,039, which covers a slight variation of a two-piece design in which the top part slides over an extended piece of the bottom part. There's also any number of design patents at play here; virtually every popular Mophie case has a design patent on its ornamental, nonfunctional elements. (For example, newer Mophie cases have a detachable bottom part; the company has design patents on that variation.)

 

 

If you look at the rest of the battery cases out there, you'll notice that most companies stay away from Mophie's two-part design: the vast majority of cases use snap-on bezels, while a few use sled designs. The only companies that have a two-part case are outfits so small it's not really worth a big Mophie lawsuit — the company has tons and tons of counterfeiters to worry about first anyway.

SOMETIMES THE SOLUTION LIES FAR IN THE OTHER DIRECTION

The other thing you'll notice is that all those other designs, uh, kinda suck. They're certainly not elegant, and it's hard to imagine Apple going for a plasticky snaps-and-clips solution of keeping things in a case. So the company needed a slide-in design without a removable top, and it couldn't round off the edges of the case without facing at least some chance of running into the various Mophie design patents. How do you solve that? By charging hard in the other direction: making a single-piece case with a floppy top and a bulging battery that has nothing in common with various patented Mophie designs. (Bonus points if you also spotted the lurking trade dress issue: lots of people call these cases "Mophies" regardless of brand, and by creating a totally distinct design, Apple also sidestepped any potential likelihood of confusion with the Mophie products.)

So that's my theory — Apple didn't have a comment when I asked. But it's hard to see how a company as designed-focused as Apple ends up with a battery case this strange without acknowledging that they were late to market, faced a meaningful competitor with a strong patent portfolio, and perhaps just did what it had to do.

Well, fine I guess less blame to Apple, but we can still hate on them for the cons mentioned in unboxtherapy's video 

 

EDIT:

Found this chart a couple hours later, here are all the cases that make the smart case completely useless other than the lightning connector and the 'tellsyouhowmuchbatteryyouhaveleft' thing on your iphone

Edited December 14, 2015 by Godlygamer23

[Sam Z Man]

Ha they got Fucked!

[Burusutazu]

I respect Apple for not blatantly stealing something for once.

[PlayStation 2]

So Apple didn't beat someone to the market. Well fuck

[Belgarathian]

This is a really valuable post. Thank you, I hadn't considered this. 

 

Still... They could have licensed something given their price point. 

[Toddwjp]

apple having to work around patents is rather funny considering what they patent

[Curufinwe_wins]

I'm calling so much bullshit on this one.

 

There are literally hundreds of battery cases on the market. Apple's desire to "stick out" is literally the only reason they came up with a design everyone else already knew was idiotic.

 

They could have made the exact same fucking case with a better material selection, less dramatic bulge transition etc. 

 

 

Poor apple... Can't pay 5 bucks per unit on a 100 dollar product. The margins will be too small.

[Tmt97]

That sucks that they had to design around patents, but its not excuse. This is a company that prides itself on innovation. Come on Apple, innovate!

[NuclearPeace]

This makes much more sense now. There had to be a very good reason for Apple to make such an ugly and unergonomic battery case. Even recently with the 3.5nm headphone blunder, that case was some exceptionally poor design that you would expect out of Apple.

[Kamil]

So Apple had a few options here:

1. Make a significantly sub-par product for a top-tier price, with its only advantage being "We haven't allowed 3rd party cases to display their battery level on screen" and rely on the Apple name to sell
2. Make licensing agreements to either have access to those patents, or lend their name to another company's product(s), at lower profit margin
3. Do nothing because the market is already oversaturated by many companies with experience in that particular category and existing product lineups, as evidenced by them patenting all the good designs

Also a hypothetical fourth option for "find a design that's actually good and not patented yet", but lets assume that the patents either were truly exhaustive or close enough that finding that design would be cost-prohibitive. 

 

I don't really have sympathy for Apple because they made something that didn't solve the problem it was made for, when that problem was already solved. Nobody forced them to make a battery case in the first place, and if they couldn't do it competitively then they shouldn't have bothered.

[RagnarokDel]

I respect Apple for not blatantly stealing something for once.

Apple apparently cant design, that's why this case is such a disaster, they couldnt steal the design

[CatCloud]

I'll just say: excuses to make more Money.

They could have made the Dang phone with a better battery from the beginning.

But Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo, thin phone is more Important.

[Syntaxvgm]

sure, it's bullshit, but it's like 

LEGAL KARMA 

get rekt post-intelligence apple 

[DigitalHermit]

I'll just say: excuses to make more Money.

They could have made the Dang phone with a better battery from the beginning.

But Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo, thin phone is more Important.

But doesn't having a silicone case with a battery bulge in it defeat the purrpose?

[Tech_Dreamer]

Wow,it's like two drunk guys fighting over an ugly girl..

[CatCloud]

But doesn't having a silicone case with a battery bulge in it defeat the purrpose?

They could have had that by default phone design....

[DigitalHermit]

They could have had that by default phone exchange design....

At least it's a bit better than carrying around a larger battery pack... I've got a 10k mAh powerbank with me and it is bulky (around the size of a case for eyeglasses)... not to mention the cables that I need to carry with it for it to be usable...

[CatCloud]

At least it's a bit better than carrying around a larger battery pack... I've got a 10k mAh powerbank with me and it is bulky (around the size of a case for eyeglasses)... not to mention the cables that I need to carry with it for it to be usable...

Well I carry one around in my bag so I can charge all My stuff if needed. But only for a phone? Yeah that's abit too much lol.

[Ravener]

At least it's a bit better than carrying around a larger battery pack... I've got a 10k mAh powerbank with me and it is bulky (around the size of a case for eyeglasses)... not to mention the cables that I need to carry with it for it to be usable...

 

Well I carry one around in my bag so I can charge all My stuff if needed. But only for a phone? Yeah that's abit too much lol.

Or you can just get a Morphie case, http://www.mophie.com/shop/juice-pack-iphone-6-plus?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cse&utm_term=JP-IP6P&gclid=CjwKEAiAy7SzBRD_lv7quOnr6XUSJAAOLkW6grhHo61EB7ZV36kvHJuBQ6dEErewYS2zkVk5_oxJ0hoCIsTw_wcB

For the same price, you can get 2600mAh compared to the iphone smart battery case 1877mAh

[DigitalHermit]

Or you can just get a Morphie case, http://www.mophie.com/shop/juice-pack-iphone-6-plus?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cse&utm_term=JP-IP6P&gclid=CjwKEAiAy7SzBRD_lv7quOnr6XUSJAAOLkW6grhHo61EB7ZV36kvHJuBQ6dEErewYS2zkVk5_oxJ0hoCIsTw_wcB

For the same price, you can get 2600mAh compared to the iphone smart battery case 1877mAh

I don't have an iPhone... (nor do I wish to have one in the near future...)

 

Well I carry one around in my bag so I can charge all My stuff if needed. But only for a phone? Yeah that's abit too much lol.

Might grab a short mUSB cable to make it more manageable instead... I carry a 1.2m cable... and all the other cables in my possession are at least 1m in length...

Edit:

I use the pack to charge a capsule speaker, and mp3 player, and 2 phones...

[thekeemo]

explain this? http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=iphone+battery+case&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Aiphone+battery+case

[mbryant]

IMO it's not a "terrible" design I mean there are much worse possible designs. I still don't think it looks good. Additionally they could have just NOT priced it at $99, I mean really? REALLY? This is just about as close as they've come to actually saying "Yeah you are really just paying for the Apple logo" but I believe the closest they've actually come to that would be when they released the 2015 MacBook 

[AlexGoesHigh]

Apple went cheap on the design, they could have stupidly easily license mophie patents, business wise its pretty stupid to reject a offer to license your product to Apple (expect the few mega corps that we all know), also none of those patents prevent them to put a larger battery on it, which is one of the several major faults of their battery case.

[CatCloud]

Or you can just get a Morphie case, http://www.mophie.com/shop/juice-pack-iphone-6-plus?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cse&utm_term=JP-IP6P&gclid=CjwKEAiAy7SzBRD_lv7quOnr6XUSJAAOLkW6grhHo61EB7ZV36kvHJuBQ6dEErewYS2zkVk5_oxJ0hoCIsTw_wcB

For the same price, you can get 2600mAh compared to the iphone smart battery case 1877mAh

Hahahahahahhahahahahha. No

Why would I waste 100 on a battery case when I can get a bigger battery bank for less and share it with all My junk?

[Clyne]

Hahahahahahhahahahahha. No

Why would I waste 100 on a battery case when I can get a bigger battery bank for less and share it with all My junk?

I call this my own battery case as it can do everything for 10 dollars!

8700mAh and provides 2.5A and 1A charging!