apple v. samsung

Apple-Samsung trial: The end is nigh

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- With both sides now out of time, the end to the trial between two of the biggest companies in tech draws ever nearer to a close.

Apple and Samsung today both ran through the last few hours -- or in Samsung's case, just minutes -- of their allotted 25 hours for rebuttals and clarifications.

Still ahead are closing arguments in which the two companies get their last chance to convince a jury of nine that the other company is infringing on its technology. A decision in either direction could result in millions -- even billions … Read more

Judge blasts Samsung's court strategy

SAN JOSE, Calif.-- Hours after chiding Apple for stacking up too many witnesses, the judge in the case between Apple and Samsung turned her attention to what she considered a strategical blunder on Samsung's part.

The company, she said, had burned up its time on cross-examining Apple's witnesses, versus presenting its case.

After each in a train of Apple witnesses were through with their testimony, Samsung passed on trying to cross-examine them, citing a lack of time. As a result, Apple has been able to run witness after witness with little resistance.

When the court was about … Read more

Judge says Apple's 'smoking crack' with giant witness list

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Tempers boiled over in court this morning, with the judge in the case between Apple and Samsung flat out yelling at Apple for trying to book too many witnesses in its last few hours.

"I am not going to be running around trying to get 75 pages of briefings for people who are not going to be testifying," U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh told Apple's lawyer Bill Lee.

"I mean come on. 75 pages! 75 pages! You want me to do an order on 75 pages, (and) unless you're smoking … Read more

Samsung expert knocks Apple's $2.5 billion damages tally

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- The $2.4 billion Apple says Samsung earned on devices with Apple's looks and technology is certainly a hefty sum, but about $1.7 billion off, according to Samsung.

To prove that, the company called on Michael Wagner, a former partner at PriceWaterhouse with 36 years of calculating corporate damages, who said that Apple's own damages expert had left out major parts of Samsung's financial data when making its calculation.

"[Apple's] total calculation of total profits did not include the total cost to figure out the profits," Wagner told the … Read more

Judge reminds Apple, Samsung to whittle down cases

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Aiming to save the jury a headache, the judge in the trial between Apple and Samsung here once again reminded both sides to pare down some of the claims against one another and settle.

"Are there trades that can be made?" U.S. District Court Judge Lucy Koh asked lawyers from both companies, adding that she hoped there could be some "horse trading" between the two before the jury sits down to decide the winner.

Koh spent much of the week asking both companies to sort out some of the claims -- … Read more

Apple touted 'quiet' presence at mobile confab it didn't attend

SAN JOSE, Calif.--There has been very little shortage of internal documents from the trial between Apple and Samsung, and today came with another goodie.

In an internal report from the 3GSM Congress Trade Show in 2007 (mis-marked as 2006 in evidence, as discussed here in court today), Apple does some chest-thumping, pointing out the fact that even though it was not there, the company's presence was the talk of the town.

"Although Apple was not present showcasing the iPhone, we were quietly setting the tone and were mentioned in each media, operator and handset vendor discussion," … Read more

Samsung designer: We were doing tablets before iPad

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- According to a Samsung principal designer, the company was at work on its Galaxy Tab 10.1-inch tablet months before Apple unveiled the iPad.

As proof, Samsung's Jin Soo Kim -- who testified in court today through an interpreter -- offered up an internal e-mail thread, with a sketch of the tablet's design dated January 6, 2010 -- days before Apple debuted its tablet to the public.

The testimony aimed to rebut claims made by Apple that Samsung copied the look and feel of the iPhone and the iPad. In the case of the … Read more

Samsung aims cell patents at Apple in court

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- In the legal spat between Apple and Samsung, which some consider a warm-up for Apple versus Google, things got small. As in, microchip-sized small.

Samsung spent the morning in court here arguing that two of its wireless technology patents had been infringed by two Apple devices. In both cases, Samsung's infringement claims focus on low-level cellular features within a chip made by Intel-owned Infineon.

While a physically small component of the iPhone 4 and iPad 2, which Samsung says illegally use the technology, the chip could cost Apple $350 million in damages if Samsung wins.… Read more

Judge urges Apple, Samsung CEOs to talk settlement

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- U.S. District Court Judge Lucy Koh today once again urged Apple and Samsung's chief executives to meet in hopes of settling the case.

"If you can have your CEOs have one last conversation, I'd appreciate it," Koh told legal counsel for both companies in court here today.

Apple and Samsung had previously met ahead of the trial to discuss settlements, court-mandated talks that did not lead to a resolution.

The plea came on the heels of Koh telling both companies that they should narrow their claims. Apple, for instance, is currently … Read more

Why Apple doesn't just sue Google and get it over with

Apple's war against Android and Google has been less "thermonuclear" and more precision sniping against key partners, with the two technology giants so far unwilling to directly go head to head.

The kerfuffle between Apple and Samsung Electronics (read CNET's full coverage here) has breathed new life into the lingering question: why doesn't Apple just sue Google? Google, after all, is the architect of the Android operating system, which is the common thread tying together all of Apple's legal targets. And after the late Steve Jobs vowed to wage a "thermonuclear war" … Read more