From pencil sharpeners to a $539m lawsuit: how big tech weaponised design patents

In 1842, the US patent office registered 14 designs, including a bathtub and a ‘corpse preserver’. It now handles 35,000 a year. Why did this once sedate world became a corporate arms race?
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2021/apr/13/pencil-sharpeners-539m-lawsuit-big-tech-weaponised-patents?source=Snapzu