Apple witness builds Fidler tablet replica to disprove prior art claims

An Apple expert witness on Friday brought out a detailed recreation of the Fidler tablet concept in an effort to disprove Samsung's claims of prior art against the iPad.

In a somewhat surprising move, designer Peter Bressler brought out the replica when he was called to the stand for the second time on Friday as testimony in the Apple v. Samsung trial came to a close.

As noted by CNet, the reproduction was different than other exhibits seen during the case, including a number of phones and tablets presented by both parties to bolster their claims. Perhaps even more interesting is that Apple presented the Fidler concept recreation in testimony rather than Samsung.

Bressler, who said Samsung's designs are "substantially the same" as Apple's during testimony early in the trial, appears to have gone through a painstaking process to get the replica device built.

"This is a duplicate that I had created of Mr. Fidler's original tablet," Bressler said of the reproduction. "I went to Missouri with a model maker laser scanner and digitized the surface of [the] model, photographed them, measured them so that we could fabricated it to be exactly the same...right down to the scratches and the paint."

The designer used the custom built replica to point out how the concept does not reflect the tablet described in Apple's design patent, pointing out the obvious cutouts on the side of the device used to house memory cards and a stylus. Also contended was the edge-to-edge glass panel seen on the iPad, a feature not present with the Fidler tablet.

Samsung brought the Fidler device up during proceedings as an example of prior art against the iPad's design, claiming Apple's tablet wasn't the first to employ rounded edges and a flat display. In addition to the concept unit, the Korean company also pointed to Compaq's TC1000 Windows tablet as an argument to invalidate the iPad's design patents.

Both parties are scheduled to present their respective closing arguments in court on Tuesday, with jury deliberations to follow.