US Patent Office Grants 'Photography Against A White Background' Patent To Amazon
...from the maybe-someone-at-the-office-checked-the-wrong-box? dept
The US Patent and Trademark Office is frequently maligned for its baffling/terrible decisions... and rightfully so. Because this is exactly the sort of thing for which the USPTO should be maligned. Udi Tirosh at DIY Photography has uncovered a recently granted patent for the previously-unheard of process of photographing things/people against a white backdrop... to of all companies, Amazon.
I am not really sure how to tag this other than a big #fail for the USPTO, or a huge Kudos for Amazon's IP attorneys. In a patent simply called Studio arrangement Amazon took IP ownership on what we all call shooting against a seamless white backdrop.
Here's a photo of Amazon's bold new photography concept (US Patent 8,676,045), which pretty much looks like every photo studio in the history of photo studios.
There's plenty of technical text to separate Amazon's white-backdropped photo studio from the thousands in existence prior to 2011 (the date of filing), which shows just how innovative Amazon's concept is:
a background comprising a white cyclorama; a front light source positioned in a longitudinal axis intersecting the background, the longitudinal axis further being substantially perpendicular to a surface of the white cyclorama; an image capture position located between the background and the front light source in the longitudinal axis, the image capture position comprising at least one image capture device equipped with an eighty-five millimeter lens, the at least one image capture device further configured with an ISO setting of about three hundred twenty and an f-stop value of about 5.6...
Amazon does more explaining later on, differentiating its proprietary white-background photo thing from others exactly like it by pointing out that prior art often refers to image retouching, green screens or other forms of image manipulation. Amazon's technique is apparently the purest of the pure, being only the photographer, the photographed object/person, the white background, a number of front lights/back lights and some sort of object separating the subject from the ground below it.
How does this breakthrough work in practice? Glad you asked.
1. Turn back lights on.
2. Turn front lights on.
3. Position thing on platform.
4. Take picture.
Now, we'll note that in all fairness (HAHAHAHA), Amazon filed this application back in the early days of photography, circa 2011. Nearly three years later, that foresight has paid off, and Amazon can now corner the market on taking pictures in front of a white background.
More at:
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20140507/04102327144/us-patent-office-grants-photography-against-white-background-patent-to-amazon.shtml
= new reply since forum marked as read
With a background in industrial design, I have an interest in the whole history and purpose of patents and even have patented inventions, thought they are held by a former employer.
In any event, the patent system had a simple dual and reciprocal mission: We'll grant you protection if you fully divulge your idea so that others might build upon it.
That's pretty simple. Other agencies have similar missions, the FDA and USDA, to protect the citizens while also promoting the industries they oversee.
Well, guess what? Just like the FDA and USDA, the little guy or gal is getting the shaft from yet another agency, the USPTO.
I would just as soon lose all protections for intellectual property.
Reading Larry Lessig's book, Free Culture, changed me.
It's free to download, not surprisingly!
http://www.free-culture.cc/
Creative Commons...PDF..etc.
The article didn't explain in a way I could understand how this could possibly be patented. Maybe it's some tech thing that they are talking about?
People have been photographing on a white background forever. So...it makes no sense. But, then that is what the article is maybe pointing out. "It makes no sense." 
Tech Folks/Photographers....Anyone here on DU use this process and now you will have to pay Amazon because of this ruling?
from a CNET discussion.
But, I do understand what you say. It's hard to understand for those of us who are novice photographers why this required a patent for Amazon. What are they going to use it for and claim rights that no one else can.
But, maybe it is a true technological wonder that only they discovered and so those who want to use it will now have to pay them. Must be big if they fought to get that patent.
