MetaChat is an informal place for MeFites to touch base and post, discuss and
chatter about topics that may not belong on MetaFilter. Questions? Check the FAQ. Please note: This is important.
Huh. I didn't know you could patent vague visual design shapes, like that pen holder (or the iPhone, for that matter). I thought patents had to be actual mechanisms or something along those lines.
There's an opening for patents on a monkey butler of some description. I'll start with a vague visual design (face, robot legs and heat-proof hands, reinforced tail for carrying extra luggage from cars/trains, etc) and work out the rest later.
I had a phone exactly like that, but it was Pac Man. You could push a button when you were talking to someone and it would play the song at a deafening volume to them.
Eventually it (obviously) broke in half.