Apple and Samsung have been fighting it out in courts over patent infringements pertaining to the design of the iPhone and iPad from Apple, which claims were infringed upon by Samsung in its devices. The legal issues have seen the filing of claims and counterclaims between the two and even led to the ban of Samsung products in a few countries. Now, the final trial is all set to begin before a federal jury in a San Jose courthouse and is scheduled to start on Monday.
The two companies are the world’s largest smartphone manufacturers and in this particular trial, Apple is suing for $2.525 billion in damages claiming that by blatantly copying its designs, Samsung has done “irreparable harm” to Apple. According to analysts familiar with the situation, this legal battle has high stakes and both companies are fighting for more than just money; the winner will be deemed to have more innovation and that could do wonders for the company. Apple seems adamant about pursuing this case and it has made statements saying that the latest phones and tablets from Samsung look a lot like the iPhone and iPad and that the similarity is not the least bit coincidental.
While Apple claims that Samsung deliberately copied the iPhone and iPad and that there is no way the Korean giant can direct the attention away from this issue by claiming that Apple infringed on Samsung’s patents, Samsung is filing counterclaims saying that the basic functioning of the iPhone infringes on Samsung’s patents. Samsung alleges that the iPhone uses patented technology from 20 years ago and that it has not paid any licensing fees whatsoever. Samsung went on to say that Apple has no legitimate case here and only brought up the law suit to destroy competition and hence maintain its profits through a virtual monopoly.
Samsung and Apple are not only rivals in the business but also business partners with the latter using the former’s technology in several products. The two have met in court before over settlement trials but none were successful. Right now, pretrial filings have led to the ban of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 and the Galaxy Nexus smartphone. Both companies are being represented by top law firms and have given the court numerous filings pertaining to a variety of issues and will be calling experts and company employees to the stand in the courtroom.
