Remember Apple ^[1]’s 1984 commercial ^[2] introducing the Macintosh? Back then, Apple was about fighting conformity and subverting Big Brother. These days, though, Apple is effectively “The Man.”

Now the largest U.S. public company, Apple has been up to some dirty tricks in its quest to protect the iPad, says bNet’s Erik Sherman. Essentially, the company is making preemptive strikes against other tablet makers (sometimes blindsiding them), using patent and trademark laws to argue that the competitors are in violation because their tablets look like…tablets. Hmm.

A German court has already sided with Apple, issuing a preliminary injunction against Samsung that will keep the Galaxy Tab out of the EU market for now.  And Motorola’s Xoom is firmly in Apple’s sights (Motorola’s commercial ^[3] is clearly a commentary on Apple “1984” and Apple now).

Sherman raises an important question, however: Will this pursuit of tablet dominance cost Apple much more in the long run?

Read more at bNet ^[4].