Apple sparked a bitter legal fight with Samsung in April when it argued that the company's Galaxy Tab and several smartphones were "slavishly copied" from the iPad and iPhone. Not one to take such allegations lying down, Samsung counter-sued Apple. Then, Apple tried to legally bar Samsung from selling the purportedly infringing devices. It's all very Hatfield-McCoy, except with obscenely rich multinational companies.
Samsung's latest move in the ongoing battle is to point out in a court filing that Apple's own iPad is reminiscent of a mini-computer featured in Stanley Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey."
Though Florian Mueller of FOSS Patents admitted he was unable to present the entirety of Samsung's court document due to it not being filed as public record, the intellectual property expert published a portion of the brief which explained the company's rationale behind the unexpected move:
Attached hereto as Exhibit D is a true and correct copy of a still image taken from Stanley Kubrick's 1968 film "2001: A Space Odyssey." In a clip from that film lasting about one minute, two astronauts are eating and at the same time using personal tablet computers. The clip can be downloaded online at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQ8pQVDyaLo. As with the design claimed by the D'889 Patent, the tablet disclosed in the clip has an overall rectangular shape with a dominant display screen, narrow borders, a predominately flat front surface, a flat back surface (which is evident because the tablets are lying flat on the table's surface), and a thin form factor.
And yes, that's a YouTube link in an official court document. A Poland-based user uploaded the video - titled "Apple iPad in the 1969 classic: 2001 A SPACE ODYSSEY - in February 2010. It's safe to say he or she probably made the iPad reference in jest, but Samsung believes it's a valid argument. The company has also included a shot from the clip in its filing. One noticeable difference between the movie tablet and the real deal is that the former apparently lacks a touchscreen.
Mueller remains unconvinced such a maneuver will sway a judge, writing that "it would be amazing if the court agreed with Samsung that this constitutes prior art for that particular iPad-related design patent." We'll soon find out. (via TechDirt)
