Apple vs. Samsung: a space odyssey
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Apple and Samsung take their patent fight back to the future.
Anyone who hasn’t been overly-distracted by actually using their tablette devices (the name will catch on if it kills me) knows all about the ongoing patent war between Apple (maker of the iPad) and Samsung (maker of the Galaxy Tab).
Early this year Samsung started the exchange by citing several process patents that Apple was allegedly infringing upon. Months later, Apple came back at Samsung, saying that the look and interface of the Galaxy and Galaxy Tab were too close to those of the iPhone and iPad, respectively.
Now, Samsung has shot back, saying that Apple didn’t invent the general look of the iPad, citing precedent in, of all places, a science-fiction film. The company claims that devices with the same general design as the iPad were represented in the Stanley Kubrick classic “2001: A Space Odyssey.” Samsung's legal brief apparently has a still from the film, and even includes a link to a clip of the film that is on YouTube.
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This opens up all sorts of floodgates. If you ever develop time travel and the key component of your machine happens to be three glowing tubes radiating out in a “Y,” then good luck trying to keep anyone else from making other time machines whose components look sort of like that. It’s been done in the "Back to the Future" movies. And don’t call it a flux capacitor, whatever you do!
Or if you make a teleportation system whose controls consist of three dimmer switches, don’t be surprised when everyone starts beaming people up that way. It worked for the crew of the Enterprise. You have been warned.
Seriously though, this somewhat ridiculous countersuit just puts a light on how untenable Apple’s prior suit is. It kind of reminds me of when Huey Lewis sued the guy who did the theme to “Ghostbusters” because it sounded just a little too much like “I Want A New Drug.”
Yes, Apple, Samsung also made a tablette that was a rectangle that is mostly a screen on one side and is also very thin. That's pretty much a description of the form factor. "2001" showed us what these computers could look like once we were at the sufficient technology level.
At least nobody is tripping over each other to develop HAL 9000, yet.
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