“For the past three weeks, a federal jury has been given competing portraits of Apple and Samsung, two of the largest, most powerful technology companies in the world — one is a hero, the other a villain,” Howard Mintz reports for The San Jose Mercury News.
“When they begin deliberating the fate of the smartphone and tablet war between the two rivals later this week, the jury will simply have to decide whether Apple or Samsung should be branded the villain,” Mintz reports. “And the nine-member jury’s verdict, which some observers say may favor Apple, could carry a multibillion-dollar penalty and send shock waves through the raging smartphone and tablet market.”
Mintz reports, “Legal experts say Apple’s simpler arguments, coupled with the mystique of its products, may give it an advantage, but much depends upon the amount of credibility the jury assigns to Samsung’s counter-arguments. Mark Lemley, a Stanford University law professor, observed that ‘Apple’s case is easier to understand — it’s less technical and has a good-guy, bad-guy story.’ Julie Blackman, a trial strategy consultant and patent expert, agreed. ‘Apple has a considerable advantage because of the high-profile nature of the iPads and iPhones and the ‘proof’ of their innovativeness,’ she said. ‘I’d be surprised if they (the jury) choose not to support the value of Apple’s work.'”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Apple’s products came first, then Samsung’s:
Here’s what Google’s Android looked like before and after Apple’s iPhone:
This will probably be Samsung’s grounds for appeal. That they can’t get a fair trial from a Jury because of the Apple mystique, a.k.a. the Reality Distortion Field.
If Samsung wins, it will be a green light for all those Asian companies to copy Apple like crazy!
Asian and American.
If Samsung gets away with this the incentive to create new things nearly evaporates, particularly if you’re a smaller firm.
Apple will be just fine either way. They have a cash horde the likes of which has never been seen in the tech industry (or perhaps any industry). And they will still innovate because it’s in their DNA. But if you’re a startup out there somewhere with an idea for the next big thing, you’re going to be risking every dollar and the dollars of venture capitalists to produce new things that can simply be stolen now instead of acquired or licensed.
Samsung argues that a vote for Apple will stifle innovation. In my view, a vote against Apple will be far more devastating.
Apple needs to do itself the favor in the future of proper vetting and not having any more Eric T. Mole’s on their Board to give away the store to. I can’t imagine the vitriolic conversation Jobs and Schmidt had after this massive betrayal but it must have curled the paint off the chairs.