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08.26.16

Michael Bierut + Jessica Helfand | Audio

Food for Thought

More than 100 designers, from Calvin Klein to Paula Scher, signed an amicus brief supporting Apple in the latest stage of their legal battle with Samsung. This will be the first design patent case to reach the Supreme Court in more than 100 years.

Michael and Jessica discuss the tensions between modernist design and intellectual property, and Michael points out the following irony:

When the iPhone came out, it looked beautiful to me but it didn’t look original, because it reminded me of something. And I suspect I wasn’t the only one. It reminded me of the Braun ET66 calculator that had been designed decades before by Dieter Rams: an object almost the same proportion with indeed, in fact, rounded corners.… Now we have the irony of the designer of that product standing up for the rights of the person who knocked him off first.

Also mentioned:

Tech companies’ amicus brief for Samsung and more from SCOTUSblog on Samsung v. Apple
Jessica Helfand, Design and Precedent on design.blog
Gorham v. White (1871)
To Live and Dine in L.A.
Sausage Party
Caity Weaver,My 14-Hour Search for the End of TGI Friday's Endless Appetizers

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More from Michael Bierut + Jessica Helfand

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Episode 125: Zoom Aesthetics
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Episode 124: That Thing You Do
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Episode 123: Closing Doors, Opening Doors
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