Do they have a legal path for 3rd party companies to make compatible chargers, like paying royalties to do so or joining some partnership program?  I think it’s lame to punish people for helping your ecosystem if you don’t provide a legal path for them. 

(It’s the same with headphones, iphone chargers, FM transmitters, etc.  There’s got to be an officially allowed path like that for laptop chargers too, doesn’t there?)

I seem to recall some company got around it by buying MagSafe chargers, throwing away the power brick and attaching their own charging system to the connector. Don’t recall who at the moment.

I seem to recall some company got around it by buying MagSafe chargers, throwing away the power brick and attaching their own charging system to the connector. Don’t recall who at the moment.

Those were people that were making airline adapters. The Apple sold airline adapters don’t allow you to charge the battery, but these “hacked” power adapters would. This made financial sense for the company because they sold the new adapters for more than the cost of the Apple brick as a sort of “luxury item”. However a company trying to make new power adapters for the MacBook would obviously not be able to make money if they had to buy a full power brick, throw it away, and attach their own.

Don’t forget. If someone made a “knockoff” charger that fried your lovely MacBook Pro who would you be brassed off at?

If someone made a “knockoff” charger that fried your lovely MacBook Pro who would you be brassed off at?

The answer to that question is rather obvious, but what does that have to do with patent lawsuits?

what does that have to do with patent lawsuits

My thought was:

If it works with a Apple Mac (Product) then Apple “Must have approved of it” so It’s Apple’s fault.

I sell Mac (I’m a Apple Reseller) and I’ve had several people over the years who’ve wanted Apple “to fix a problem” with a third party device/software because the Customer has decided that it’s Apple’s fault because it didn’t stop that third party from making either hardware or software that worked on the Mac.

And could you imagine the hullabaloo if a after market charger suddenly started killing it’s intended device ?

Wow, I can’t even fathom the fact that anyone would blame one company for another off-brand company’s shoddy product. I guess your experience points out my naiveness