Remember Apple wants the jury (and the consumer) to believe that Samsung copied the iPhone and that this copying caused consumer confusion. The confusion then resulted in lost sales for Apple. Unfortunately their plans did not seem to work out so well. During the presentation of Apple’s side of the story many of the witnesses countered their assertions under cross examination. Also Samsung found ways to bring Apple’s own documents to bear on their witnesses (something Apple has
attempted to do to Samsung) including an internal Apple study that showed most people bought Android phones to stick with their carrier. This was at a time when Apple was still with AT&T only and was also seen as the reason Apple decided to expand to multiple carriers and build a CDMA based phone. Oddly enough one of the leading reasons for buying an Android phone is that they have larger screens. If the rumors are true that Apple is making the iPhone 5 with a larger screen does this mean they are copying Samsung, HTC, LG, Motorola and other Android phone makers?
Still as we said it is now Samsung’s turn and so far their presentations have been very interesting including showing Apple’s claimed “phone” icon on a system that predates the iPhone by a few years. On top of that Samsung brought out a technology called DiamondTouch that was shown to a few engineers at Apple before development on the iPhone started. Creator of the DaimondTouch Adam Bogue stated that he demoed the tech for Apple which featured a “pinch to zoom” aspect that they called “a simple two-point operation to simultaneously pan, zoom, and rotate the object in one natural and intuitive motion”.
Just take a look at this video from 2001 where Mitsubishi shows of DiamondTouch with multiple users. It was uploaded in 2008, but the original was shot in 2001.
We can remember seeing this technology demonstrated many years before the iPhone was even a rumor. On top of this rather nasty bit of prior art Roger Fidler, the designer of the Filder tablet that was created in the early 1990s also testified that he showed the design to Apple in 1994. This happened to be the same year that Apple applied for the patent that covers the look of the iPad (the 889 patent). Apparently Fidler worked with Apple and other companies at the Informational Design Laboratory so the design was exposed to multiple people and probably inspired more than just Apple.
Samsung had more than this up their sleeve though and brought out Electrical Engineer Itay Sherman who is the CEO of DoubleTouch. Sherman showed off a few foreign patents that have the same aspects as the claimed design patents from Apple. Sherman also brought up the Compaq (now HP) TC1000 which was available on the market in 2002. Apple’s lawyers did point out that Sherman was an electrical engineer, but considering the fact that Samsung is also trying to show that some of Apple’s claims fall under functional and not design features we have a feeling that the counter argument did not have the impact that Apple wanted.
The more this trail moves on the more Apple is looking like RAMBUS with their habit of sitting in on group meetings and then running to the patent office. Does anyone know where RAMBUS is today? Apple is on a seriously slippery slope here, they are damaging their own brand and company name with this obsessive desire to destroy Android. We expect the evidence to mount that Apple’s patents are not valid due to Prior Art. This is something that Samsung tried to do before this trial even started, but Judge Koh refused to allow this to happen. Meanwhile the continued parade of Apple’s inspiration will serve to hammer home Samsung’s claims that Apple is infringing on their patents, after all if they borrow from so many they also would have no qualms about borrowing from Samsung.
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