Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Movie devices as prior art

HT Carol Stoneburner: Samsung cites 2001 as prior art against Apple. Star Trek's communicator anticipated the smartphone (and if I did enable any audible ringtone, you can bet it would be a Star Trek chirp), but this filing is particularly fun because it also implicates copyright law: Samsung includes a screenshot from the film, and also directs the court to this YouTube clip from 2001 that does not seem to have been uploaded by the copyright owner. Samsung's uses are unquestionably fair; what does that imply about the clip in general? (As a ST fan, I'll also say that the various flat devices in use in the Star Treks, especially TNG, seem closer to the iPad than the device shown in 2001.)

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