Sony Ericsson have filed a patent for a water, dust and sand resistant removable cellphone case, the focus of which is creating something easy to fit and remove despite having a resilient seal around the snap-on cap.  They’ve also chosen to illustrate the application with possibly the worst images I’ve seen from such a document; seriously, I’m thinking they must’ve run them a few times through some ancient fax machines. 

“The present invention relates to a cover for a portable device comprising: a main body with resilient parts, an opening provided in a resilient part for insertion and removal of the portable device; and a cap shaped and configured to close the opening and to fit over at least a part of the resilient part surrounding the opening” Sony Ericsson patent application 

The document describes a form-fitting shell that’s reinforced with inner ribs and a central spine; meanwhile, there are pass-through molded buttons so that the handset remains functional without needing to remove it from the case.  Openings would be protected with semi-permeable membranes such as GoreTex.

While this is an admirable intention, I can’t help but think that it’s quite a general thing for the company to be able to patent.  It’ll be interesting to see what other manufacturers come up with to waterproof their cellphones, without treading on the toes of - or, worse, licencing - Sony Ericsson’s intellectual property.

[via Just Another Mobile Blog]