On Friday, an Apple expert witness brought out a detailed recreation of the Fidler tablet concept. The tablet was recreated in an attempt to disprove Samsung’s “prior art” claims against the iPad.
In a somewhat surprising move, designer Peter Bressler brought out the replica when he was called to the stand for the second time on Friday as testimony in the Apple v. Samsung trial came to a close.
The reproduction was different than other exhibits presented during the case, including phones and tablets presented by both sides in order to boost their claims.
Bressler, who had earlier testified the Samsung’s designs are “substantially the same” as Apple’s went through the painstaking process to get the replica built.
“This is a duplicate that I had created of Mr. Fidler’s original tablet,” Bressler said of the reproduction. “I went to Missouri with a model maker laser scanner and digitized the surface of [the] model, photographed them, measured them so that we could fabricate it to be exactly the same…right down to the scratches and the paint.”
Bressler used the replica to point out how the tablet does not reflect Apple’s design patent, such as the obvious cutouts on the side of the device to house memory cards and a stylus. Another difference was the edge-to-edge glass panel on the iPad, a feature absent from the Fidler tablet.
Samsung had brought the Fidler device up during the case as an example of prior art against Apple’s iPad design. Using it to bolster their claim the that the Apple device was not the first to use rounded edges and a flat display.
