We are in the home stretch of Apple v. Samsung, as closing arguments have been presented and the case sent off to the jury for deliberation. Electronista has an interesting recap of the closing arguments, which seem to be a microcosm of the trial itself.
At long last, it's now all up to the jury.
It was negotiated that Apple would give their closing arguments first, then Samsung got their turn to present and Apple received rebuttal time. This came out to two hours for each side to summarize and make their last efforts at convincing the jury.
Lead attorney for Apple Harold McElhinny, led the closing just as he’d lead the opening: with a reminder of the moment Steve Jobs unveiled the original iPhone, and how it was worlds away from anything else in the market at the time. He also pointed out that not just Samsung, but the entire mobile industry undertook a change in direction after the iPhone announcement. Using their own words, he also reminded the jury that Samsung referred to itself as a “fast follower” of trends.
Mr. McElhinny went on to remind the jury that not a single Korean executive-level employee of Samsung appeared in court; Apple claims that is where the decision to infringe was made. He also noted that Google was not the defendant, even though they offered to cover some costs if Samsung is found to have infringed on Apple’s patents.
There were some objections from Samsung during closing arguments, mostly when Mr. McElhinny pointed out it wasn’t important if Apple was actually using all these patents, if Apple holds patents they shouldn’t be copied. More objections came as the point was stressed that Samsung’s lawyers were being paid by Samsung AND Google, which Samsung failed to mention when asked at the start of the trial, in effect lying under oath. He brought it home by pointing out Apple didn’t even want to be in court, they tried to negotiate with Samsung a year before the first case and Samsung refused.
Samsung’s closing argument involved four lawyers, the first being Bill Price. He started by saying you can’t copy iPhone features if they aren’t in the iPhone, then tried to spin the crisis of design memo as just a relay of what carriers wanted, and tried to paint Samsung as the underdog, saving the world from an iPhone monopoly. Mr. Price went on to address the “holy war” comments, claiming Samsung’s success is based on hardware, not “Apple-style” features in software.
Next up was David Nelson, who explained to the jury that the US Patent and Trademark Office is fallible and sometimes makes mistakes, so it is the jury’s duty to question that office in times like, oh, let’s say now.
Moving on to Samsung’s infringement charges against Apple, attorney Kevin Johnson said there was nothing unusual about claiming infringement on patents purchased from another company, and reminded the jury that Apple didn’t have anyone testify against Samsung’s claims. He ended his portion by saying that just because one of the patents expired doesn’t mean Apple gets out of paying damages.
Samsung’s home stretch was presented by John Quinn, who felt the time crunch and delivered with a speed somewhere between John Moschitta and an auctioneer. He claimed Apple doesn’t own everything, and that Samsung doesn’t owe Apple. He mocked Apple’s expert witness study about the value of specific features to consumers before skipping parts of his closing. His wrap up was that any amount awarded to Apple would be seen as a victory, Samsung would never give in to these sorts of demands, and Apple should lay off the lawsuits and "get back to work on that iWatch we've been hearing about.”
Bill Lee gave Apple’s rebuttal, spending his half hour pointing out Samsung paid US $5 million for experts to sue for only $6 million in patent infringements, and stated the patents in question were purchased after the first court case. This brought more objections from Samsung. Then Mr. Lee wrapped up saying Apple hopes the jury can recognize the difference between fair and unfair competition.
Now the case is off to the jury, who will deliberate from 9:30 until 4:30 daily.