“The jury deciding Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co.’s $2 billion patent-infringement case asked the judge for additional evidence about whether Google Inc. was mentioned when Steve Jobs, the iPhone maker’s co-founder, decided to sue,” Joel Rosenblatt reports for Bloomberg.
“U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh, in a note responding to the jury’s question yesterday, said the panel can only consider evidence that was introduced during the trial and that no supplemental material will be provided,” Rosenblatt reports. “Yesterday was the jury’s first full day of deliberations following a trial with almost four weeks of testimony.”
Rosenblatt reports, “Samsung argued at trial that Apple’s real target in the lawsuit is Google’s Android operating system. Android is used to run Samsung smartphones, and most of Apple’s claims in its second U.S. trial against the Suwon, South Korea-based maker of Galaxy phones relate to Android functions. ‘Reading between the lines, there appears to be some disagreement among jurors about why this case was filed,’ Brian Love, a law professor at Santa Clara University, said in an e-mail about the jury’s request. ‘In particular, the jury seems to be debating whether this case represents a genuine effort by Apple to protect patents it truly values or, instead, is a pretext for a general attack on Samsung and Google.'”
“Apple and Samsung have fought battles across four continents to dominate a market that was valued at $338.2 billion last year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg,” Rosenblatt reports. “Samsung had 31 percent of industry revenue, compared with 15 percent for Apple, whose share of the market has shrunk as the touch-screen interface became more commonplace and Samsung, LG Electronics Inc. and Lenovo Group Ltd. have introduced lower-cost alternatives.”
MacDailyNews Take: Apple doesn’t compete for market share per se since Apple doesn’t target low-cost customers as they are not worth it. Not all customers are created equal. So, why do reporters continually measure Apple vs. competitors in the wrong way? Why don’t reporters compare Apple’s profit share to rivals? Answers: Because reporters like Joel Rosenblatt are lazy, ignorant, anti-Apple, or some combination of the three conditions.
Rosenblatt continues, “The patent disputes began when Samsung released its Galaxy smartphones in 2010. Jobs, who died Oct. 5, 2011, initiated contact with Samsung over his concerns that the Galaxy phones copied the iPhone. Jobs later vowed to wage “thermonuclear war” to prove that phones running on Android copy the iPhone.”
MacDailyNews Take: Apple’s products came first, then Samsung’s:
Rosenblatt continues, “Both companies in closing arguments this week addressed the biggest surprise of the trial — when Apple put on evidence last week showing that Google is backing Samsung’s legal defense, after revealing that the Galaxy maker in 2012 had denied seeking indemnification from anyone. Apple argued the revelation cast doubt on Samsung’s “credibility,” while Samsung sought to brush the insinuation aside, saying it can’t be used to find the company liable for infringement.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Here’s what Google’s Android looked like before and after Apple’s iPhone:
Furthermore, here’s what cellphones looked like before and after Apple’s iPhone:
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Arline M.” for the heads up.]