Samsung Uses 2001: A Space Odyssey In Apple Fight
Well now it seems that old Sammy has used a bit of old film footage in an attempt to discredit Apple’s continuing claim that Samsung Galaxy gear infringes on Apple design, namely the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 looks like the Apple iPad.
According to an article over on Slash Gear by way of FossPatents, Samsung is using what is know as prior art to get their point across and actually attached a YouTube video clip of a scene from Stanley Kubrick’s 1969 classic movie 2001: A Space Odyssey to make their point, and we have that video clip for your consideration below.
Here’s what Samsung said about the clip being prior art and thus valid for the Apple iPad related design patent…
” 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.”
Whether the court will actually accept the still and video footage as proof of prior art remains to be seen, but it does go to show to what lengths Samsung is prepared to go to defeat Apple in this patent dispute.
Have to say, although one couldn’t mistake the tablet devices in the video for the Apple iPad is does go to show that the basic design for a tablet has been around for quite some time, so maybe, just maybe old Sammy does have a point.
Head on down and check out the footage for yourself and feel free to let us know your opinion on whether you think Samsung has made a genuine prior art point with the footage by posting to our comments area below…enjoy.
Comments
2 thoughts on “Samsung Uses 2001: A Space Odyssey In Apple Fight”
i sure hope sammy gets reimburse handsomely from apple scare tactics…the judge needs a slap in the face then replaced with another judge with some common sense.
I don’t think that a defense based on prior art will do much good in a dispute over a design patent. The issue isn’t the idea of a tablet computer, or anything having to do with its functionality. The issue here concerns the cosmetics… the details of the industrial design. Imagine that GM sued somebody for making a fiberglass knockoff of the Cadillac Escalade, and the defendant brought in pictures of SUVs and claimed they represented “prior art.” The issue isn’t making SUVs, it’s making knockoff Cadillac Escalades. Does Samsung’s product look so much like an iPad that it constitutes an infringing knockoff? The judge decides.