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tdp2664 InvestorPlace Modern technology looks like a lot of things. The HTC Thunderbolt smartphone that’s proved so popular for Verizon (NYSE: VZ ), for example, looks like a flashy snuff box from the 19th century that happened to have pitch poured all over it. The Sony (NYSE: SNE ) PlayStation 3 looks eerily like the George Foreman Grill. The Nintendo (PINK: NTDOY ) Wii kind of looks like the tissue boxes Howard Hughes wore on his feet when his mysophobia got really bad. As any 5-year-old is all too happy to point out, most things look like other things. The ongoing slapfight over patent infringements that’s defining the mobile technology market these days is largely based on everyone’s little black-or-white rectangle looking identical to everyone else’s. No company appears more intent on blocking everyone else from selling tiny black rectangles than Apple ( NASDAQ : AAPL ). The company is waging an international litigation war against Samsung (PINK: SSNLF ) looking to block its line of Galaxy portables from releasing in a growing number of markets. Samsung, of course, claims Apple is being ridiculous. So ridiculous, in fact, that Apple has no claim on the look and feel of the iPad at all because that look was copied from an older source. Did Samsung claim that Apple copied Microsoft ‘s ( NASDAQ : MSFT ) Tablet PC prototype design from 2001? No, but that date is significant. The Korean technology company’s lawyers filed a declaration with a federal district court in California on Aug. 15 that said Apple’s iPad replicates the design of mocked-up tablet computers used in Stanley Kubrick’s film adaptation of 2001: A Space Odyssey . The filing even included a YouTube link to demonstrate. It points to how Dave and another astronaut are using machines with “an overall rectangular shape with a dominant display screen, narrow borders, a predominantly flat front surface, a flat black surface, (and) a thin form factor.” This is, the filing says, identical to the design featured in Apple’s D’889 Patent. That’s quite an argument. As silly as Samsung’s claim is, it does demonstrate how absurd Apple’s claims of patent infringement are becoming. At the beginning of August, Apple successfully blocked Samsung from releasing the Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet in Australia , then later from releasing the entire Galaxy line (including smartphones) in most countries across the European Union . The reason is that the Galaxy Tab infringes on 10 patents held by Apple, particularly those related to the “ look and feel ” of the iPad. Samsung’s Galaxy Tab isn’t the only tablet that’s come under Apple’s scrutiny. The company is looking to block the German release of Motorola ‘s (NYSE: MMI ) Xoom as well, and on the same grounds. Can Apple hold a patent on tablet design that sports a shiny touchscreen and black bezel? These are, after all, minimalist devices to begin with. Will competitors really have to start putting rainbows on their tablets just to keep from getting sued? It’s still unclear whether Samsung will have to recall its entire Galaxy line of devices. In the meantime, investors should keep an eye out for when Paramount Pictures sues Research in Motion ( NASDAQ : RIMM ) on the grounds that the BlackBerry Curve looks too much like a communicator from Star Trek . Or when TiVo (NASDAQ: TIVO ) gets sued by Time Warner (NYSE: TWX ) because its logo looks too much like the televisions used in The Flintstones . As of this writing, Anthony John Agnello did not own a position in any of the stocks named here. Follow him on Twitter at
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