Behold the Samsung Galaxy product suite — as it stood in October 2011. Photo: Mike Isaac
SAN JOSE, CA – Shortly before the court broke for lunch on Tuesday during the Apple v. Samsung trial, Samsung’s legal team hit the jury box with an assault of technical details on the patents it believes Apple is infringing. One juror actually began nodding off. The tone and content of the testimony was a stark contrast to Apple’s opening statements earlier in the day, which were clearly designed to appeal to the jurors’ emotions.
Samsung attorney Charlie Verhoeven conducted the opening statement. “There’s a distinction between commercial success and inventing something,” Verhoeven said. Verhoeven showed a selection of tablet designs that bore a striking resemblance to the rectangular, minimalist look of the iPad — and some of these tablets dated back to 1994.
“Apple didn’t event the rectangular-shaped form factor you keep seeing,” Verhoeven said. Harkening back to the words that Samsung’s product chief told Wired, “They have no right to claim a monopoly on rounded corners on a rectangular screen.”
Verhoeven showed a handful of slides illustrating the broad range of Samsung cellphones and smartphones before the iPhone was introduced in 2007, and then after. After the iPhone, Verhoeven said, consumers simply wanted candy bar-shaped phones with a large touchscreen on the face, and the entire industry moved toward that. “Is that infringement?” Verhoeven asked. “No, it’s competition. It’s providing to the consumer what the consumer wants, and that’s what Samsung has done.”
He said that it’s natural for companies to look to the competition for inspiration, and even provided examples of internal Apple documents dissecting and discussing competing smartphone and tablets in the space, including Samsung’s. And as with all competitors in the current tablet space — slides included iPad-like tablets from Acer, Toshiba, and others — Verhoeven said Samsung’s products aren’t the source of any “trade dress” dilution. That is, Samsung’s products aren’t causing confusion for consumers in the marketplace.
After giving an overview of Samsung’s history in the mobile space, Verhoeven noted that Samsung is a major components supplier for Apple, providing parts like the main memory, flash memory, and applications processor for the iPhone, and the Retina display for the new iPad. “Apparently Apple thinks Samsung has invented something, to put its products in its phone,” Verhoeven said.
Samsung spent the bulk of its opening statement going over both Apple patents and its own patents. Verhoeven pointed out how Samsung’s phones don’t include the protected features of Apple’s design patents (for example, an even bezel across the rim of the device. He also went into greater detail explaining Samsung’s patents to show how they are utility patents necessary to 3G transmission functionality.
Verhoeven also took occasional pot shots at Apple. For example, he said Samsung’s 3G patents are “much more fundamental than little things you can do on a touchscreen.” Verhoeven closed Samsung’s testimony by saying, “Samsung hasn’t done anything wrong. Samsung is an innovator, a competitor. If anything, what we have here is infringement by Apple.”
The Apple v. Samsung trial will recess until this coming Friday. We can’t wait to hear what comes next.
