Samsung has filed its opposition brief to Apple's motion for a preliminary injunction in the United States. And they're citing Stanley Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey" film as prior art against the iPad design patent, reports "FOSS Patents" (http://macte.ch/faHyU).

In a clip from the movie, two astronauts are eating and at the same time using personal tablet computers. "Ever since Apple started to assert the design of the iPad against other manufacturers, many people have been wondering whether there's actually prior art for the general design of the iPad in some futuristic devices shown in sci-fi movies and TV series," says Florian Mueller, writing for "FOSS Patents." "And indeed, Samsung's lawyers make this claim now in their defense against Apple's motion for a preliminary injunction."

This is all part of an ongoing legal battle between Apple and Samsung. Last week the former filed a patent lawsuit against the latter in South Korea, claiming that Samsung’s Galaxy line of smartphones and tablet computers copies its iPhone and iPad devices.

Apple filed a similar suit in the United States in April. Samsung has filed countersuits, accusing Apple of patent violations.

-- Dennis Sellers