The tablet was primarily a device built for reading newspapers and magazines, although it never made it further than the concept stage. The Fidler Tablet has been part of Samsung’s case for a while (to reason that Apple didn’t actually invent tablets with flat screens and curved edges), but Apple’s decided to turn the tables.
As part of Samsung’s defense, they called up Roger Fidler to the stand. Fidler is a tablet visionary, so to speak, and Samsung argues that Fidler’s tablet prototypes from the early 90s serve as prior art to Apple’s iPad patents.
An Apple expert has replicated a tablet concept from 1994 to try to discredit the assertion made by Samsung that the concept device is prior art that should invalidate Apple’s design patent on the iPad.
Roger Fidler is now Program Director for Digital Publishing at the Reynolds Journalism Institute (which is part of the J-School). But many years ago, according to his written declaration submitted to the court, he worked as a media developer at Knight-Ridder starting in 1979.
Over Apple's objections, Samsung was granted the right to present pictures of a tablet newspaper concept from 1994 as evidence of prior art refuting the originality of its iPad design patents.
Roger Fidler testified in writing and on video about the idea he pitched nearly 20 years ago for a tablet-size interactive device he believed would one day replace printed newspapers.
Samsung brought forth videotaped testimony from one Roger Fidler (Program Director for Digital Publishing at the University of Missouri’s Reynolds Journalism Institute), who asserted that he’s been working on tablet designs since 1981.
Fidler testified via video tape in Apple’s intellectual property case against Samsung. Fidler stated that he showed Apple his tablet designs 31 years ago, which is where he believes Apple got the idea to develop the iPad.
Through a video deposition, Samsung showed the tablet mockup design created by Fidler, who was working in the 1980s and 1990s for Knight Ridder to demonstrate the future of newspaper reading.
Videotaped testimony by Roger Fidler, who heads the digital publishing program at the University of Missouri, was shown yesterday to the jury in Samsung’s multibillion-dollar intellectual property dispute with Apple over smartphones and tablets.
Samsung, which began defending itself against charges of patent infringement by Apple yesterday, called witnesses to show that some of the inventions claimed by Apple’s patents appeared in others products years before the release of the iPhone in 2007.
People who use smartphones are not abandoning print media any faster than non-users, according to a study by the Donald J. Reynolds Journalism Institute at the University of Missouri.
