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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
Apple, Samsung tech-patent battle opens in U.S. court today
SAN FRANCISCO -- Two tech titans will square off in federal court today in a closely watched trial over control of the U.S. smartphone and computer tablet markets.
Apple Inc. filed a lawsuit against South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co. last year alleging the world's largest technology company's smartphones and computer tablets are illegal knockoffs of Apple's popular iPhone and iPad products. The Cupertino, Calif.-based company is demanding $2.5 billion in damages, an award that would dwarf the largest patent-related verdict to date.
Samsung counters Apple is doing the stealing and some of the technology at issue -- such as the rounded rectangular designs of smartphones and tablets -- has been standard for years.
The U.S. trial is just the latest skirmish between the two over product designs. A similar trial began last week, and the two companies have been fighting in courts in the United Kingdom and Germany. The case is one of some 50 lawsuits among myriad telecommunications companies jockeying for position in the burgeoning $219-billion market for smartphones and computer tablets.
U.S. District Court Judge Lucy Koh in San Jose last month ordered Samsung to pull its Galaxy 10.1 computer tablet from the U.S. market pending the outcome of the trial, though the judge barred Apple attorneys from telling the jurors about the ban.
"That's a pretty strong statement from the judge and shows you what she thinks about some of Apple's claims," said Bryan Love, a Santa Clara University law professor and patent expert. Love said though the case is being heard by 10 jurors, the judge has the authority to overrule their decision if she thinks they got it wrong.
Many say it appears Apple was motivated to file the lawsuit, at least in part, by its late founder's public avowals that companies using Android to create smartphones and other products were stealing from Apple.
"I will spend my last dying breath if I need to, and I will spend every penny of Apple's $40 billion in the bank, to right this wrong, I'm going to destroy Android, because it's a stolen product," Jobs is quoted as saying in Walter Isaacson's book. "I'm willing to go thermonuclear war on this."
-- The Associated Press
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition July 30, 2012 B7
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