Judge Thomas Pender, expert in international patent law, and purveyor of the "Cheech and Chong" test.
Thursday an International Trade Commission judge said Apple and Samsung’s ongoing patent case may be decided by what the judge referred to as the “Cheech and Chong” test.
The judge in question is one Thomas Pender, according to Bloomberg. Pender commented that the case may come down to the aforementioned “Cheech and Chong” test first tried during the Salem witch trials, and later inspired the comedic duo Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong. The test consists of identifying an object using the following qualifications: “Does it look like it, feel like it, and smell like it?”
For the 1970’s pop culture novice Cheech and Chong famously applied the above test in an attempt to decipher whether or not a substance they believed to be dog feces, was in fact dog feces. After applying each step of the test to the substance, they ultimately agreed the substance was feces and were happy they didn’t step in it.
The case to which Pender will likely apply this rigorous form of testing involves Apple’s allegations that the Samsung Galaxy Tab and smartphone lineups copied the look and feel of the iPad and iPhone.
Apple’s lawyers claim Samsung copied not only the overall design, but even “the smallest detail of the iPhone.” Samsungs retort claims the company arrived at the designs of their Galaxy products after spending $3.5 billion and decades of research. I really wish I was the R&D department that blew $3.5 billion and when asked what we came up with, just held up a spray painted iPhone. And got away with it.
Judge Pender will hear the Apple v. Samsung case through June 6 and will deliver his ruling on Oct. 5. Presumably demonstrating his conclusion via the Cheech and Chong test.
Source: Apple Insider
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