It has been reported that Taiwanese government officials are to meet PC vendors in order to tackle the issue of Apple's newly granted patent on wedge\teardrop profile of light notebooks.

Apple was granted the patent on June 5, which means that it holds the exclusive patent rights for another 14 years. Director-general of the Ministry of Economic Affairs' Intellectual Property Office Wang Mei-hua said that the vendors should be warned "in case Apple takes action against them".

It appears Acer, Asus, Compal and Hon Hai Precision Industry are the main adressees, but the list is most probably far from complete. The companies are now facing possible lawsuits and even import bans across the States.

Well, there you have it - patent trolling has reached such depths, that it's really turning into a form of art. As if milking out profit from same technologies for years hasn't slowed technology enough, we need to trademark shapes now as well.

More here.