Regarding the Amazon photo patent

I have a different angle on this topic, which I posted on G+, but seeing as no one really follows me out there, I thought I'd post it to people who might actually care! Please note, this is complete speculation and potentially madness..

"Seen a lot of people questioning the recent Amazon patent regarding how to take a good product photo, asking questions such as "Are they going to be checking all pictures taken from now on?" and "All they've managed to do is give away their method for taking good photographs" - but perhaps that's what they wanted to do?

My reasoning - Amazon sells things. Things that look bad on their pictures are less likely to be purchased due to first impressions. If Amazon were to show a 'standard' way of taking a photograph of their product, how many people would have listened? How many people would have cared? But the fact they have patented it, and thus caused outrage, has given it legs and carried the method across the internet meaning more people have seen this method for taking 'good product photos'.

Although a patent should stop other people from using this 'idea', this may have the opposite effect, and could have educated people on how to take a good product photo, therefore increasing the quality of product photo's on websites such as, oh I don't know, Amazon, and therefore potentially driving more sales due to better first impressions.

Or maybe I'm just crazy ;)."

Could this be a crazy round about way of education and setting a standard? I don't see Amazon as the kind of company that would patent that just for the sake of it. Maybe they are?

It is crazy. Since the existence of the camera (for the most part), photographers have used white back drops. The patent system has regulations that are meant to prevent this sort of thing. Anything that is blatantly obvious, This is obvious. Like apple and their patent for icons with rounded corners. It should not be patented. Since icons existed, many have been icons that are squares with rounded corners. Back on topic, my uncle who is a professional photographer has used white back drops for many portrait photos for things. We need to have a complete patent, copyright, and trademark system reformation. A company had iphone trademarked 6 years before Apple even made the concept public. They tried to sue and lost, because Apple is well Apple. Patent should be for something you make, that is unique, not something that has been used for nearly a century and a half. Software should only be patented by the method of achieving the result you want. As in the code should be the only thing patented, not the idea the code is trying to present. Apple tried to patent Photo recognition on phones a year after Google had a working app for android. Ideas should not be patented ever, the method of achieving should be the only patented thing. Anyways this is just my opinion and will probably never be accepted by the corporate fat cats and corrupt politicians. The patent system in its current state is what cripples innovation for kickstarters, giving the already huge companies access to monopolize innovation, and innovation slows down or ceases completely. Anyways, it is blatantly obvious to use a white back drop and well Amazon is blatantly turning into another Apple.   

Compare Amazon with what ebay has done pretty recently and you'll find your answer. Fairly recently, ebay put out more strict standards for item photographs, and items listed that do not adhere to the standard are removed, and the seller is requested to provide better photographs in line with the standard. Ebay did nothing with patents.

 

If Amazon just wanted to have users submit better photographs, they could have done pretty much the same thing. They didn't.