
Day 2 is underway in the Apple v. Samsung case in The Netherlands, a microcosm of what would have happened in Germany, had Germany implemented the concept of due process. Most interesting bit so far? Samsung is using the
Knight Ridder tablet from 1994 as a case of prior art. I was unaware of this device, but be sure to watch the video - this
is an iPad. Amazing. This doesn't actually surprise me though - my father worked at a large newspaper company his entire life until he retired a few years ago, and in the early '90s, he already attended demonstrations of devices like this, taking home promotional material that amazed my child brain. This was supposed to be the future of newspapers, until development on these kinds of devices suddenly halted - my father never understood why.
Update: Forgot to mention that like yesterday, Andreas Udo de Haes, editor at
WebWereld.nl,
present in the court room, is covering this. This time, in English.
Update II: Samsung
has presented 20 cases of prior art for both tablets and smartphones.
Update III: I'm liking
Samsung's lawyers.
Member since:
2009-01-24
"this is an iPad"
What I see by watching that Knight Ridder video is a pen based e-reader. The iPad is the sum of it features and how they are implemented. This covers the physical design, interface design, the ability to run apps and browse the web with finger input and respond to other physical senors such as the accelerometer, gyroscope, proximity, voice, etc.... it's how all these things are combined and presented that make the difference. This is a poor example of "prior art". A windows based tablet would make a better subject but of course that is not an iPad either. Maybe they should just show a few classic Star Trek episodes.
That said, I strongly believe all software and process patents should be abolished - pure evil.
Edited 2011-08-12 02:29 UTC