Apple, Samsung make final pitch to jury

Closing arguments were delivered at trial between Apple and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd in a federal court in San Jose, California. The jury will begin deliberating on Wednesday.

Samsung attorney Charles Verhoeven countered by urging jurors to consider that a verdict in favor of Apple could stifle competition and reduce choices for consumers."Rather than competing in the marketplace, Apple is seeking a competitive edge in the courtroom," Verhoeven said. "(Apple thinks) it's entitled to having a monopoly on a rounded rectangle with a large screen. It's amazing really."

Apple and Samsung are going toe-to-toe in a patents dispute that mirrors the struggle for industry supremacy between the two companies, which control more than half of worldwide smartphone sales.

A win for Apple could have a major impact on the industry because the South Korean company's mobile products are run on Google Inc's Android operating system, popular software that is used by many other manufacturers. Before he died, Apple co-founder Steve Jobs told his biographer he intended to go "thermonuclear" on Android, saying it had copied Apple.

If the jury determines Samsung violated Apple's valid patents, U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh could impose sales bans against the Korean company's products.

In court on Tuesday, Apple attorney Harold McElhinny urged jurors to consider the testimony of a South Korean designer who said she worked day and night on Samsung's phones for three months."In those critical three months, Samsung was able to copy and incorporate the result of Apple's four-year investment in hard work and ingenuity -- without taking any of the risks," McElhinny said.

Apple is seeking more than $2.5 billion in damages from Samsung. An Apple expert said Samsung earned 35.5 percent margins on the tablets and phones at issue in the lawsuit from mid-2010 through March 2012, on $8.16 billion in U.S. revenue. Samsung has disputed that figure.

Apple accuses Samsung of copying the design and some features of its iPad and iPhone, and is asking for a sales ban in addition to monetary damages. Samsung, which is trying to expand in the United States, says Apple infringed several patents, including some for its key wireless technology.

Both Apple and Samsung used a series of internal emails, witness testimony from designers, product demonstrations and mockups to present their case.

CROWD OUTSIDE THE COURTHOUSE
McElhinny laid out what he said was chronological evidence that showed Samsung copied Apple's designs. He also told the jury that, while Apple brought many of its top executives to testify and face cross examination, Samsung had presented no major decision makers."From the very beginning, Samsung has disrespected this process," he said.

McElhinny said Samsung's internal documents compared its products with Apple's -- and determined it had a crisis of design.Scores of journalists, lawyers, analysts and observers turned out to watch the arguments. By 7:30 a.m. (1430 GMT) on Tuesday, the line outside the courthouse was nearly a block long. The nine member jury spent over two hours listening to granular legal instructions before Apple's McElhinny began his presentation just after lunch.

McElhinny focused on a meeting between Samsung and Google executives in February 2010, where Google asked Samsung to stop imitating the iPad so closely."Samsung executives chose to ignore that demand and continue on the path of copying," he said.Apple said the products looked so similar that it led to confusion in the marketplace.

Samsung's Verhoeven said Apple had not shown any evidence that consumers were actually deceived into buying Samsung products instead of the iPhone or iPad."Consumers make choices, not mistakes," he said. Verhoeven also went on to tell the jury that Apple's damages claims were not calculated correctly, calling them "ridiculous."

On rebuttal, Apple attorney Bill Lee said Apple was not trying to keep Samsung out of the smartphone market. "All we're saying is, 'Make your own,'" Lee said.

This article comes from:http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/08/22/us-apple-samsung-trial-idUSBRE87K02320120822?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&rpc=71

Apple offered Samsung a licensing deal at $30 per smartphone

APPLE AND SAMSUNGmight have avoided their high-profile court case, as it has been revealed that the Iphone maker tried to strike a licensing deal with Samsung in 2010.

According to Allthingsd, Apple offered to license its design patents to its arch-rival Samsung, asking for $30 per smartphone and $40 per tablet. The cappuccino company was also willing to give Samsung a 20 per cent discount if it would cross-license its standards essential mobile technology patent portfolio to Apple.

Otherwise, Apple has offered pennies to license Samsung's mobile technology patents."Samsung chose to embrace and imitate Apple's iPhone archetype," Apple said in a presentation to Samsung dated October 2010.

"Apple would have preferred that Samsung request a license to do this in advance. Because Samsung is a strategic supplier to Apple, we are prepared to offer a royalty-bearing license for this category of device."

Of course, clearly these negotiations didn't work out, as the two companies are now embroiled in the biggest patent infringement court case of all time. Apple is claiming that by not licensing its patents, Samsung is "slavishly copying" its Iphone and Ipad devices and is seeking £2.5bn in damages.

Samsung, on the other hand, is arguing that Apple is trying to stop competition in the market, saying that it can't claim merely a 'black rectangle' as a design patent.

The court case between Samsung and Apple is expected to continue until the end of Augus.

This article comes from:http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2198265/apple-offered-samsung-a-licensing-deal-at-usd30-per-smartphone

Apple Requests Sanction for Samsung

Apple Inc. AAPL +0.16% asked a federal judge to sanction Samsung Electronics Co.005930.SE -2.85% and an attorney for releasing disputed evidence to the media, as a squabble in their patent case continued for a third day.

In a filing made public on Thursday, Apple said "Samsung and its counsel engaged in bad faith litigation misconduct by attempting to prejudice the jury." Apple further said the court "should not condone this behavior" and should "severely sanction Samsung."

The harsh words followed Samsung's unusual move on Tuesday to send evidence blocked by the court to reporters. Earlier in the day, John Quinn, the lawyer representing Samsung, said he was "begging" U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh to allow evidence the company believes is integral to the case but that she rejected several times. Judge Koh was nonplused, telling Mr. Quinn, "Don't make me sanction you."

Mr. Quinn then approved the release of that evidence to reporters. Samsung believes the documents show the iPhone was "inspired" by Sony Corp.'sSNE -7.41% products. Judge Koh demanded Samsung explain the move, prompting a response Wednesday from Mr. Quinn, founding partner of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP.

Mr. Quinn said in the declaration that the move was "lawful" and "ethical" in part because the materials were already in the public domain. He added they weren't designed to influence jurors.

Even for Mr. Quinn, known for sometimes using a bit of flamboyance to good effect, the move caused raised eyebrows among other patent lawyers. Attorneys involved in the case said they had never seen anything like it.

In California and many other states, ethical rules prohibit lawyers from making press statements that could prejudice a judge or jury, said Stephen Gillers, a law professor and legal-ethics expert at New York University.

Mr. Gillers called Mr. Quinn's maneuver "a bold move, to put it kindly," adding that Judge Koh now will have to determine whether Mr. Quinn violated the rules and, if so, what sanctions might be warranted.

This article comes from:http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390443866404577564922926800912.html

Hulu Plus Debuts on Apple TV

For those of us who have long been awaiting an Apple-based television subscription service, well, this may be the closest we get for a while. On Tuesday, Apple quietly added support for Hulu Plus to its Apple TV set-top box, bringing access to ad-supported television episodes and movies for paid subscribers of that service. The addition was first noted by MacRumors.



Hulu Plus subscribers get access to the service’s content, while new users have the option of signing up for a free one-week trial or subscribing to the service via their iTunes account, as with Netflix. Once you’ve logged in, you’ll have access to your favorites and your queue, as well as a catalog of TV episodes, movies, and popular clips.

The Apple TV interface for Hulu is very similar to Netflix's and that of the other video services; the top menu provides access to Popular and Recommend items, Recently Watched videos, TV, Movies, Trailers, and Search. Videos are ad-supported, as in other Hulu’s Web and mobile offerings, but you can still skip around, and pause and play as you’d expect. You can resume a video from where you left off, even across platforms, allowing you to start watching a video on your iPad and continue later on your Apple TV.

This article comes from:http://www.pcworld.com/article/260091/hulu_plus_debuts_on_apple_tv.html