The "Wafer Thin" Writing Tablets of Vindolanda Precede in Design the Thin Tablet Design Claim of Apple for the iPad2 by ca. 2000 Years: Does Modern Greed Know No Bounds?

In the previous LawPundit posting we did not discuss the Apple claim that the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 infringed on the iPad2 because (using our English translation from the original German-language motion): "Tab 10.1 copies the prominent thin profile of the iPad2".

Alas, dear Apple, you are at least 2000 years too late in your design claim for  "thin" writing tablets. You were preceded by the "wafer thin" Vindolanda wooden tablets, which are dated to the 1st and 2nd centuries AD.

As written at the British Museum and at Wikipedia, quoting the Wikipedia:

"The Vindolanda tablets are "the oldest surviving handwritten documents in Britain".^[1][2] Written on fragments of thin, post-card sized wooden leaf-tablets with carbon-based ink, the tablets date to the 1st and 2nd centuries AD (roughly contemporary with Hadrian's Wall). Although similar records on papyrus were known from elsewhere in the Roman Empire, wooden tablets with ink text had not been recovered until 1973, when archaeologist Robin Birley discovered these artefacts at the site of a Roman fort in Vindolanda, northern England.^[1][3]"

Roman writing tablet from the Vindolanda Roman fort of Hadrian's Wall, in Northumberland (1st-2nd century AD). Tablet 343: Letter from Octavius to Candidus concerning supplies of wheat, hides and sinews. British Museum (London) | Author = Michel wal) | 2008. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported, 2.5 Generic, 2.0 Generic and 1.0 Generic license.

When we look at these 2000-year old tablets, we see that not too much has changed in the shape of the "outer" rectangular design for ""thin" tablet writing that Apple has in fact copied from our forebears and to which it is wrongfully and shamefully trying to claim exclusive rights.

From Lawyer to Hollywood Writer: Marshall Goldberg: Kiski '64, Harvard '68, Stanford Law '71

I found a short informative write-up about a Stanford Law classmate, Marshall Goldberg, at The Kiski School famous alumni page, where they write, inter alia:

"... you've probably seen Marshall's work in your living room more times than you can count... [e.g.] L.A. Law... The Paper Chase."

See some of his credits at The Kiski School (about the school here).

Three Mount Rushmore Presidents Were Land Surveyors: The Territorial Imperative: You Have to Understand the Importance of Property in Law, Politics and History: LAND not POTS ruled

One of the most useful books I ever read was Robert Ardrey's Territorial Imperative. Hat tip to CaryGEE. Considered outdated by some -- we disagree, the book remains essential to understand ancient history and also modern current events.

Jeffrey  J. Anderson in his later similarly titled The Territorial Imperative: Pluralism, Corporatism and Economic Crisis, writes in the Preface;

"Politics is rooted in territory. State-building, war-making, pork-barreling, gerrymandering -- the examples are legion. Much the same can be said about markets, which allocate resources not just to firms, sectors, factors of production, and individuals, but also to subdivisions of the national space. Indeed, the spatial dimension of the political economy is so prevalent that it is easily, if not frequently, overlooked."

It all has to do, ultimately, with land. Walter O'Brien, Staff Writer at the Asbury Park Press in Land surveyors take the measure of our lives | The Asbury Park Press | APP.com writes:

"Jeffrey Baldwin, a Hillsborough resident and licensed surveyor since 1991 who has been chief surveyor for the Somerset County Engineering Department for about six years, said that surveying is one of the world's oldest professions, dating to ancient Egyptians who mapped out parcels of land to assess taxes. Many historical figures, including George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Thomas Jefferson, have been surveyors.

'We like to look up at Mount Rushmore and say that it's three surveyors and some other guy,'' Baldwin joked."

There is a reason that three of America's greatest Presidents were previously land surveyors. You have to understand land to rule.

I say that as someone who also worked on a land survey team in my college days.

One reason why archaeologists and similar professions are often far off the mark in their historical theories about the past is that they are generally people who do not understand the importance of land and land survey to ancient cultures.

LAND was the guiding force of history -- not POTS.

Professions such as lawyers understand this.