A German court granted Apple a preliminary injunction blocking the sale of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 in the European Union. Samsung hasn’t given up and rightfully so, If you actually look at Apple’s Patent, it could stop any tablet from going to market. It seems Samsung is reaching way back before Apple even conceived of a tablet to Stanley Kurick’s 1968 “2001: A Space Odyssey”.
Samsung asserts that the tablet-like devices featured in a clip from 2001 predate the iPad, here is a section of their latest filing:
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. 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.
What Samsung is getting at is that the art work from Kubrick’s movie is the real inspiration for all modern tablets, so Samsung isn’t actually copying the iPad’s design. You can see in the clip below that the tablets they are using are very similar to the tablets that are on the market today. It’s unclear whether the defense will work, regardless, it’s a pretty cool that a science fiction classic is being used as a legal defense.
If you want to check out how a tablet was used in 2001: A Space Odyssey:
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