The Crunchpad is proof of obviousness in the iPad design
The patent case between Apple and Samsung regarding the iPad and Galaxytab has been an ongoing issue. Apple won an injunction against the sale of the Galaxy Tab in Australia, then saw the decision reversed, only for it to be re-applied by a higher court.
Context & Ripple Effects
Apple's design case against Samsung has become a running battle over what counts as prior art. In August, Samsung argued that a tablet depicted in Stanley Kubrick's '2001: A Space Odyssey' anticipated the iPad's look, and by October a U.S. judge had found that Samsung tablets do infringe Apple's designs — so the obviousness question is live on both sides of the Pacific.
The Crunchpad argument adds a third prong: a real, pre-iPad hardware project rather than a film prop. It matters because Apple is running the same design-registered playbook against more than one rival, including its European suit over Motorola's Xoom tablet, and every credible obviousness exhibit pressures the whole strategy at once.
First-order effects
- Samsung gains a concrete non-film prior-art exhibit for its obviousness defense, complementing the Kubrick citation already before the courts.
- In Australia, the re-applied higher-court injunction keeps the Galaxy Tab off shelves while the design-validity question is contested.
Second-order effects
- An obviousness finding grounded in the Crunchpad would hand Motorola and any other tablet defendant the same template to attack Apple's design registrations in Europe.
- Courts split across jurisdictions — Australia re-imposing a ban a lower court lifted — push Samsung toward jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction workarounds rather than a single global product decision.
Third-order effects
- If pre-iPad prototypes and screen fiction keep eroding design patents, tablet disputes shift toward utility patents and feature-level claims, weakening design registration as a market-blocking weapon.
- Sustained injunction ping-pong invites regulators and legislatures to revisit how easily design rights can halt sales of entire product lines before trial.
The trend: The tablet patent wars are turning into a test of whether design registrations can survive a wave of pre-iPad prior art, with each obviousness exhibit raising the bar for sales bans industry-wide.