Amazon Granted Exclusive US Patent For Photographing Against White Background

So this is interesting, on March 18th the United States Patent and Trademark Office granted a patent to Amazon covering a specific method to achieve the common photographic technique of capturing an image of a subject against a plain white background.

Um, this is a tad bit nuts. There are tons of other large companies, small companies and struggling artists that use a white backdrop to advertise their products. How can a company be granted the rights to something as basic as photographing against a white backdrop using a setup that many other photographers use?


What's next, copyrighting the color white?

This is not a joke! Taking a photo against a white background could soon be the exclusive property of the multinational, on-line sellers Amazon, after the US Patent and Trademark Office granted them the rights to the process of photographing people or objects against a white backdrop.

Food for thought: does this mean, in the future, Google could hold the exclusive rights to Abstract Expressionism, as a style? Apple patent the process of digital drawing or Amazon holding the rights to e-books as a process of publication?

Amazon Granted Exclusive US Patent To Photographing Against White Background

Amzon Patent No.US 8,676,045 B1

What this means is that Amazon managed to patent the best camera setting for a particular shot.

Amazon successfully patents photography against a white background

ETA: GOOGLE IT.

Saw this across many of the photography websites and blogs a few weeks ago, absolutely unbelievable!

Yeah, this guy Sawatzky "invented" it. Sure he did, and nobody else in history has taken images in a similar manner. This is really showing just what a joke the patent issue has become. Almost up there with Prenda Law and their lawsuits and patent trolling of individuals and companies.

ETA: GOOGLE IT

Its not just the white backround but the whole method inluding elevated platform, forground and background lighting and camera angles.

Still, how can you pattent something like this. There is no propriatary technology used, no special tricks.

This is just stupid. Whats next, pattenting how seeds are sewn?

Maybe i can get a patent for how i wipe my rear?

a reply to: Britguy

It's ridiculous, how can a set up that's used by thousands and thousands of other people be patented for one company's use? Maybe it won't be enforced but that fact it was approved is beyond words.

Well, Cadbury's have copyrighted 'their' shade of purple!.....nobody else allowed to use it.

Rainbows
Jane

a reply to: Jennyfrenzy

What the..?

How can anyone be granted such exclusive rights? EVERY Single company who advertises, every single one big or small, uses this method of photography! Seriously... that patent should NEVER have been allowed!

I think we need to boycott this move! Patents are for product inventions, not styles of photography every single company uses!

don't worry the worlds gone mad Australia allows patent of the wheel

An Australian man has been issued with an innovation patent for the wheel after setting out to test the workability of a new national patent system. John Keogh was issued the innovation patent for a "circular transportation facilitation device" under a patent system introduced in May 2001.

a reply to: OpinionatedB

It's unbelievable!!

I'm going to put a patent on the stippling technique used in tattooing.

I would think some court could overrule this. This is pretty ridiculous.

To the Cadbury comment on patented purple. Still ridiculous. BUT, someone had to come up and design it and so on.

a reply to: BlastedCaddy
no....Cadburys purple is COPYRIGHTED not patented.....bit of a difference.

Rainbows
Jane

It won't work, simply because they'd have to define white as an exact color. Anyone could take a picture against a "white" background and simply have it a tiny fraction of a shade off of Amazon's "white"... Or just ignore it altogether and leave the burden up to Amazon to prove it's the exact same color as their "white". I hardly think Amazon would start a bunch of legal battles because someone had a white background in their photos.

a reply to: Jennyfrenzy


This is just more proof that the US Patent office is useless and archaic. The notion of patent holding has been manipulated by large pocketed corporations and lawyers and now has become nothing more than just another method for the control of all information.
"The notion that you can own an idea".......just think about that for a minute. The moment you share it with any other human it also becomes their idea doesn't it?
The entire system is ridiculous.

every time i apply for a visa to Europe they ask for a picture of me with a whit background , so does that mean i will have to pay a fee to amazon when i do that again ??

If everyone ignores it, it becomes unenforceable. Better yet, every photographer who is aware of this should start taking photos using ONLY this technique.

Also, Amazon didn't patent photos taken against a black background? They must be racist.

a reply to: Maxatoria

Think I'm too late to patent the age old and mysterious process of making fire or perhaps the process of putting pencil to paper in order to form complex images called ..drawings..?

The state of bureaucracy has just gotten outright silly hasn't it? lol

originally posted by: Britguy
Saw this across many of the photography websites and blogs a few weeks ago, absolutely unbelievable!

Yeah, this guy Sawatzky "invented" it. Sure he did, and nobody else in history has taken images in a similar manner. This is really showing just what a joke the patent issue has become. Almost up there with Prenda Law and their lawsuits and patent trolling of individuals and companies.

Oh yeah! People like him will try and lay claim to many things that they had no part of. This is disgusting and should be thrown in the trash immediately. This would be like trying to trademark the word "the". Anyone who even entertained this idea should be sent packing. It's a money-making scheme.

Anyone got the email address of the patent office, a couple of billion emails might drop the hint.
Can the Amazon congo claim copyright
Do the energy companies that supply Amazon or the patent office use advertising (on a white background) if you get my drift.
Could the inventor of the digital camera claim infringment.
Of all of the forms of intellectual-property protection, patents are the most complex and tightly regulated. Patents are basically copyrights for inventions, defined by U.S. patent law as "any NEW and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any NEW and useful improvement thereof."
How is something people have been doing for years be classed as NEW?