Samsung Digital Picture Frame 2006 is Clear Designer Prior Art to the Later "Design" of the iPhone and iPad

The design that Apple registered in the EU is a rectangle with rounded corners (EU Community Design 000181607-0001) and it is that design upon which the sought injunctions against Samsung for design infringement of the iPad and the iPhone are based. That design is so absurdly simple that one is skeptical.

When we look at the image below, which in the year 2006 precedes the introduction of the iPhone and the iPad, it would look as if this Samsung digital picture frame design has been copied by Apple for its iPad and iPhone.






See Engadget: Samsung digital picture frame stores pics, movies, music

Hat tip to Shenj.

Perhaps it is not a coincidence that Samsung also makes some of the hardware that goes into Apple products. Just how close was the cooperation?

It makes one wonder - speculatively of course - whether this whole absurd legal thing on design could have been developed intentionally by Apple and Samsung together to create a gigantic advertising campaign via the courts and the media -- all for free.