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Apple vs. Samsung: Smartphone rivals billions apart in value of patent feud [San Jose Mercury News :: ](San Jose Mercury News (CA) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) April 21--SAN JOSE -- When it comes to dollars and cents, Apple and Samsung are about as far apart in their ongoing patent feud as their respective headquarters in Cupertino and South Korea. Perhaps illustrating why the two smartphone powers have been unable to settle their four-year global patent conflict, a Samsung economics expert Monday gave a federal jury a vastly different view of the worth of Apple's patent case against its tech rival -- telling jurors that even if Samsung violated Apple's patent rights, the company should pay about $38 million in damages, a far cry from the $2.2 billion Apple has demanded. The testimony came in the fourth week of the trial, which is expected to conclude its evidence phase this week and move to closing arguments next Monday. The eight-member jury will be asked to render a verdict on Apple's claim Samsung owes it billions for copying five software features in iPhones and iPads, such as the slide-to-unlock and data recognition patents. Samsung has argued that Apple targeted the wrong company with its legal grievances. Samsung contends the software patents at issue in the trial were developed by Google and are integral to its Android operating system, which ran the Samsung smartphones and tablets in the case. Apple maintains Samsung decides what technology to include and sell in its increasingly popular smartphones and tablets, and that Google has nothing to do with the trial. Earlier in the trial, Apple's experts told the jury that Apple is entitled to $2.2 billion in damages, about half of that from royalties it should receive for Samsung phones sold with the copied software features and the rest from lost profits and sales. But Apple has dramatically inflated the value of the patents, Judith Chevalier, a Yale University economics professor, testified. She told the jury Apple is entitled to nothing from lost sales because consumers would not base their choice of smartphones and tablets on such "minor" software features, and should receive the $38 million in royalties -- not Apple's $1.1 billion royalty figure -- if the jury sides with Apple on patent infringement. In a 2012 court contest between the two companies, a federal jury found in favor of Apple, which was awarded nearly $1 billion in a case involving older product lines. Apple and Samsung experts also disagreed dramatically in their damages estimates in that first trial. Samsung is expected to resume its case Tuesday, presenting claims that Apple has infringed some of Samsung's patents, such as a mobile video feature used in Apple's FaceTime in iPhones. Samsung has valued those patent claims at less than $10 million. Howard Mintz covers legal affairs. Contact him at 408-286-0236 or follow him at Twitter.com/hmintz. ___ (c)2014 the San Jose Mercury News (San Jose, Calif.) Visit the San Jose Mercury News (San Jose, Calif.) at www.mercurynews.com Distributed by MCT Information Services |