Other manufacturers have! Just not laptop manufacturers:

http://archives.cnn.com/2001/US/07/03/deep.fryers/

http://www.amazon.com/Presto-09982-Magnetic-Deep-Fryer/dp/B0...

Edit: Incidentally, I always assumed this is where Apple got the idea in the first place.

Don't magnetic connectors on deep fat fryers famously pre-date MagSafe?

MagSafe (according to Wikipedia): 2006 The above CNN article: 2001

The concept of MagSafe has been around for decades. My old water pot from Japan had it. The only innovation here is Apple repurposing it for laptop computers.

And maybe (I don't know nothing about magnets) the fact that their magnet are very close to other silicon chips inside the MacBook AND the LCD display (It's LED, but technically they're almost the same).

Magnets in laptops aren't a problem - spinning disc hard drives have strong magnets in them.

And yet Apple has a patent on it…

Not sure what to make of that.

The patent office will grant you a patent on $anything, as long as you add "...on a computer" or "...on the internet" or "...over a cellular network".

I assume it's patented.

Indeed it is: http://www.google.com/patents?id=vR-pAAAAEBAJ