Apple, Samsung trade barbs as new patent trial opens

 Lawyers for Apple and Samsung exchanged barbs as amajor new patent trial opened, debating the role of a company not even part of thecase -- Google.Apple's legal team vowed to prove that Samsung flagrantly copied iPhone featuresand should pay more than $2 billion in damages, as the two smartphone giantssquared off anew in a California courtroom.Apple attorney Harold McElhinny opened his presentation with a video showing legendary Apple co-founder Steve Jobs introducing the first iPhone in 2007.By putting computing power in smartphones powered by fun software and easy-to-use touch-screens, Apple transformed the market, sending Samsung onto its heels,according to McElhinny.The attorney told jurors in his opening statement that they would see internalSamsung documents and messages showing that the company felt it was suffering "acrisis of design" with the difference between its devices and the smartphone "adifference between Heaven and Earth."Apple said evidence will show that the South Korean electronics giant sold morethan 37 million infringing smartphones and tablets in the United States.California-based Apple would have demanded royalties of about $40 per device to license the patented technology to Samsung, according to McElhinny.The overall amount being sought by Apple in damages from Samsung will top $2billion, the lawyer explained."This case is not about Google," McElhinny told jurors."It is Samsung, not Google, that chose to put these features into its phones."But Samsung's lawyer told the jurors in the San Jose, California court that the casewas indeed about Google, and Apple's struggle against the maker of the Androidoperating system which is now winning in the global marketplace.- 'Attack on Android' -"It's an attack on Android, that is what this case is," attorney John Quinn said."Apple is trying to limit consumer choice and gain an unfair advantage overGoogle's Android."Quinn contended that four of the five patents at issue in the trial are not used inApple mobile devices, but because of features built into Android software by Googleengineers litigation was pursued.He promised jurors that Google engineers would be called to testify to how theyindependently designed Android software and did not copy Apple.Samsung is the world's leading maker of smartphones and tablets built usingGoogle's free Android mobile operating system.Android smartphones dominate the global market, particularly in devices offered forlower prices than iPhones."Apple is an amazingly innovative company, but in some respects, Google's Androidhas passed them," Quinn said."Apple is trying to gain from you in this courtroom what it has lost in themarketplace."In August 2012, a separate jury in the same court decided that Samsung should payApple $1.049 billion in damages for illegally copying iPhone and iPad features, inone of the biggest patent cases in decades.The damage award was later trimmed to $929 million and is being appealed. If this new trial goes in Apple's favor, it could result in an even bigger award since itinvolves better-selling Samsung devices, such as the Galaxy S3 smartphone.Quinn attacked expert witnesses Apple planned to call to back its case in the sky-high damages claim. The attorney contended the lawsuit extended from a war thatJobs declared on Google because of Android in 2010."A holy war on Android, that was Apple's strategy," Quinn said. "This lawsuit is partof a strategy to catch up with Google."- Dark side -Apple lawyers accused Samsung of going far beyond competitive intelligence to the"dark side" of intentional copying.Jurors will also consider Samsung's claims that Apple infringed on patents related totransmitting digital video and storing digital images.McElhinny called Apple vice president of worldwide marketing Philip Schiller as thefirst witness in the case.Under questioning, Schiller described how Apple took a big risk betting on theiPhone, which was created during a top-secret project over the course of three years.The launch of the iPhone in 2007 was an "historic" moment for Apple, with customersurveys showing that ease of use was a major appeal for customers, according toSchiller.He said he reacted with "shock" when Samsung introduced its Android-poweredGalaxy smartphone because it appeared to him that Samsung was copying theiPhone.