“Late last night, Samsung filed its opposition brief to Apple’s motion for a preliminary injunction in the United States,” Florian Mueller reports for FOSS Patents.
“Ever since Apple started to assert the design of the iPad against other manufacturers, many people have been wondering whether there’s actually prior art for the general design of the iPad in some futuristic devices shown in sci-fi movies and TV series,” Mueller reports. “And indeed, Samsung’s lawyers make this claim now in their defense against Apple’s motion for a preliminary injunction.”
This is how the related declaration explains why this movie picture is valid prior art for a certain 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 [YouTube]. 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.
Read more in the full article here.