Smartphone patent battle: Apple and Samsung's trial continues in California

Samsung defended itself and went into attack mode, saying it didn't copy the iPhone, and accused Apple of violating three of its patents, Wall Street Journal reported. 

The high-stakes patent trial between Samsung and Apple has reached its second phase, according to Wall Street Journal.

According to Bloomberg Businessweek, the witnesses in the San Jose court demonstrated technologies resembling Apple’s “rubberbanding” -- the way an iPad or iPhone screen bounces when users scroll down to the end. Witnesses claimed that this technology was gained by Samsung years before 2007, which was the official release time of the iPhone.

Samsung and Apple have been accusing each other of intellectual property infringement. Their patent trial was presented in a court in San Jose, California in early August. "one of the biggest trials of its kind", quoted from BBC. 

Apple claimed a total of $2.5 billion in damages and a total of seven patent breaches by Samsung. However, it is likely that the judge triples that figure to punish Samsung for unscrupulous misconduct, BBC remarked.

According to BBC, Samsung and Apple account for more than 50 percent of global smartphone sales. The two are the world’s largest makers of the high-end handheld devices that combine the function of a phone and a laptop. 

If the jury finds any or both parties guilty, billions of dollars of payments would be generated from one company to the other.  Apart from that, sales bans could also be imposed, which would have great impact to the whole industry.

The trial is the first before a U.S. jury in this intellectual property battle. Wining the case means dominance in a smartphone market on four continents, which Bloomberg Industries estimated the value to be $219.1 billion. 

 “There are a number of Samsung phones and two Samsung tablets that are substantially the same as those” Peter Bressler, an inventor of 70 design and utility patents of Apple patents, told Bloomberg.

Submitted documents and testimony are likely to affect the two companies' decision making and deals with others in the future, according to BBC.

Though Apple have purchased many of its components from Samsung in the past, the two companies have failed to reach an agreement on cross-licensing deals even after the courts ordered their bosses to meet for talks.

Apple prompted to sue Samsung in April 2011 after several high-level meetings between the two companies failed in which Apple alleged that Samsung had copied Apple's patented technology. A countersuit by Samsung followed by Apple's case. After that, the two cases were combined. 

Image: CNN