A lawsuit between Apple and Samsung, two of the region's largest technology companies, may seem like a lawsuit between two of the region's biggest auto companies.
On Friday, an eight-person jury began its deliberations at the US court in San Jose, in the center of Silicon Valley, and 10 kilometers from Apple's headquarters. They were able to make a statement as soon as possible about how much money Samsung owes Apple for violating three of its rival design patents and two utility patents when it sold millions of sixteen obsolete phone models in 2010 and 2011..
Where do the cars come in? To help jurors share their thoughts about the complexity of the problem, each party sends them to simpler analogies with cars.
The jury's decision will help determine if design patents become stronger - and probably also in numbers - if companies try to take advantage of their ideas in style and decoration. Such an increase could help the forces of technology remain strong. And more specifically, for Samsung, it will determine whether the company will pay the fine of $ 28 million that it considers only for infringement of the design patent or $ 1.07 billion that Apple wants.
So it's a big problem. Let's look at some details of what happened since the beginning of this case in 2011, what happened this week and what happens next.
We started with the car thing.
### Cars and Production Items
The focus of the case is how to determine which fines Samsung should pay. The status of design patents means that the South Korean electronics giant should miss out on the sale of the "production article" that infringes Apple's patents. Samsung lost to Apple in 2012, or it raped, but it prevailed in the Supreme Court, which in 2016 found that this profit could come from a part of a product, not the entire product.
However, the way you determine exactly what this manufacturing artifact is is quite confusing. District Judge Lucy Koh, who is in charge of the four trials in the Northern District of California, has adopted a four-factor heavy test to evaluate the article and therefore whether Samsung should pay its fine on full phones. or just a few components.
Samsung and Apple have corrected the situation in different car analogies. In a previous test, a Samsung expert stated that a full product-based fine meant that a person who broke the patented design of a cup holder had to pay compensation based on the profit from the sale of the cup. the whole car.
Apple's lawyer, Bill Lee, said last Friday that it was ridiculous. "Samsung wants you to believe that Ford decided to break the shape of the [Volkswagen's] beetle ... the good element of production would have been the outside of the car," he said. Instead, the manufacturing element would be the entire car in this case, and the whole phone in the case of Samsung.
### Connect the dots
This leads us to another problem: what exactly is Apple's patent. One factor in the four-factor test is what is actually claimed in the patent, and Apple and Samsung have struggled with the problem. Design patents show what is projected on images, with solid lines to the covered area and dotted or dotted lines to areas that are not covered. The patents are very clear about this: "The dashed lines in the figures show parts of the electronic device that are not part of the claimed project."
A witness from Samsung, designer Sam Lucente, emphasized this point by showing two of Apple's design patents - the US patent D618677 (abbreviated as D'677), which has a black rectangular front with rounded corners for a device. U.S. Patent No. D593,087 (D'087), which discloses a similar rounded angle rectangular front face plus the surrounding machined edge to completely remove the dotted line material.
"First, I showed the complete design of the patent, so I wanted to make it clear to the jury that this is what was claimed," Lucente said.
As Apple wants to focus on the whole design of the phone, he argued that dashed lines are important.
"He acknowledged that it is important to have a context, he is committed has to erase ALL of this context," said Apple lawyer Joe Mueller, August Jüri in his final request. "He can not pay attention."
But Samsung's lawyer Bill Quinn replied in His Closing Argument, Exhibiting One's Apple patent design D789.926, which is not part of the lawsuit and since Apple has tried, Success Week, Worm to Avoid Jurors. The patent describes the cover design that our iPhones originated for the SIM. Almost all patents, including a small drawer, that appear at the end of the iPhone, are drawn in dotted lines.
"We're trying to make a good example of electric power, [Apple] gets all the benefits," says Quinn.
At Samsung you're right, said Sarah Burstein, a professor at the University of Oklahoma, what's the problem with the article in an interview.
"ONLY ONE party MUST claim" to marry "for a violation, THEN the universe of products potentially infringing AND MUCH BIGGER," said Burstein, who is NOT involved in the case. "If Apple Has Finished Prevailing Here, We Can See Myself, But Candidates Building SIMILAR Portfolios of Declarations Fragmented design fragments that would allow eels that are blended together and for the kind of Frankenclaim that Apple has continued to try to AFFIRM here."
### Cookies of 1 without a booth
After the discussion on Monday and the arguments of the opening on Tuesday, Apple has Samsung called the witnesses. Apple Executives Like Richard Howarth, Third Director of the Company's Design Team, and Greg Joswiak, Vice President of Products at Apple's Discussed Marketing has a design philosophy from Apple. ripped off the iPhone.
But spéciales bones design in exterior the supported Apple of the part to make a great burden arguing THAT ARE THE APPARELS "Unit" or monolithic phones, NAS Words make industrial designer Alan Ball. MAYBE MAJORLY HAVE THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE PROCESS HAS BEEN Susan Kare, a graphic designer who CREATED bones icons to make Macintosh Originals back home year 80 and who has testified that it has American patent D604,305 (of 305), which Color Grade describes An Icon, Applies -to a whole phone.
Looking at How Images of the First iPhone of 2007 Kare Said: "It Shines and You Puff Our Eyes Why and Tao of how much color attracts fast You with All How Much Ideas Do This Could Be Not Directly Relevant But The Apple Side Has Spent A Lot time design that really changed the world.
Refutation of Samsung
Samsung's witnesses have sought to demonstrate that counterfeit products are glass front panels, screens with goggles and screens.
THEY HAVE BEEN CAREFUL TO HIGHLIGHT A THOUSAND BACK COMPONENT COMPONENTS AND A SMOKE PHONE Samsung has show As One opened Whole factory for them repaired. The back of the four manufacturing factors is to become separate from the rest of the product.
Bones Phones IT HAS MANY ELEMENTS That Is Not Near Patented Back Projects, Says It Has Samsung Batteries, Video Cameras, 4G Radio Network Messages Text Software And MUCH more. In Journal Last Review, THESE range of Technologies That Is Distinct from Facing Back Phones and Networking Black Icons MUST be convincing to be, said Tom Engellenner, an Intellectual Property Lawyer doing Hamilton Law Firm, which is not affiliated. without trial.
"I was impressed with the testimony of ... Samsung Galaxy MUST have its smartphones Up to 10 Different Antennas - for various Telecommunication Operators, Radio, Bluetooth, GPS, etc.," Engellenner said. "I would be surprised Ue is has the Apple pit Able to convince Yuri of the time Second that had Right to all The profits of Samsung on Your phone How damages FOR patent infringement YOUR project focused ONLY on display form and bevelled edges of the iPhone."
### Jury time
The evidence and arguments ended Friday, so the case is now in the hands of eight jurors.
They are equipped with a set of 45-page instructions, a cart full of files filled with thousands of pages of evidence, a laptop to examine spreadsheets and a pile of archaic Android phones that they can try. (There are no games, however, they say the jury's instructions.)
The jurors should weigh the arguments and then make some accounts. The way they will come back when it's done is simple: a list of the offending phone models on one side of the page and the amount that Samsung owes to each on the other side.
Most of the damage will come from the three design patents. For both utility patents, Samsung has not challenged Apple's expert calculation of a $ 5.3 million damage payment - enough to buy a good home in Palo Alto, Calif., But a misery compared to the fine of several billion possible with the project. patent.
The lawyers say they will be ready in five minutes to hear the verdict of the jury. They do not have a deadline, but Koh said he would be surprised if the deliberations lasted more than a few days.
The case will likely be appealed, and in the end, it will likely end up in the hands of the US court, which will face the thorny question of the four-factor test for the article of manufacture, Burstein said. "So, really, we will all have to keep our breath," she said.
However, technology companies have learned a good lesson on patents.
"If Apple leaves with a billion dollars or half of that, I think the message has already been heard by companies," said Engellenner. "Design patents are not strange, but valuable weapons to protect well-designed products."
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