Apple's latest iPad-related design patent is literally for the rounded rectangular front outlined in solid black.
On Tuesday, after review by a patent examiner, the United States Patent and Trademark Office awarded Apple an additional design patent relating to the iPad's "ornamental" design. The ornamental design feature encapsulated in US Patent D670,286 for a "Portable display device" appears to be a literal rounded rectangle. But whether or not this patent would be useful against Apple's rival and alleged "copy cat" Samsung in court is unclear.
Apple had originally asserted design patent D504,889 against Samsung as part of its massive lawsuit alleging that Samsung copied Apple's iPhone and iPad devices to make its competing Galaxy S and Galaxy Tab devices. That design patent, filed in 2004 and awarded in 2005, appears to be based on an early iPad prototype.
US federal judge Lucy Koh had originally awarded Apple a preliminary injunction against Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1 device based on her judgement that Samsung likely infringed the '889 patent. However, a jury later ruled that the Samsung device did not infringe this particular patent, though Samsung had infringed several other patents in the process of designing various smartphones and tablets. Samsung noted that it was "unfortunate that patent law can be manipulated to give one company a monopoly over rectangles with rounded corners," and the injunction was later rescinded.
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