Apple Vs. Samsung Patent War Puts $2 Billion At Stake, Adds Android To The Mess

As part of a new patent infringement lawsuit against Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. (KRX:005935) on Tuesday, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) sought $2 billion from its South Korean rival for allegedly copying the iPhone in 2010 at a time of internal crisis.

Apple claimed in the court documents that Samsung phones and tablets infringed on five of its patents, while a lawyer for the Korean conglomerate accused the iPhone-maker of trying to make up for the losses it has sustained in the smartphone market because of Samsung's growing dominance, especially outside the U.S.

“The evidence in this case will be that Samsung copied the iPhone and it also took many other Apple inventions that had not yet appeared in Apple products,” Harold McElhinny, a lawyer with Morrison & Foerster, which is handling the litigation for Apple, was quoted by Re/code as saying in his opening arguments in court. “Copying the iPhone was literally built into the Samsung development process.”

According to McElhinny, the jury will be provided with internal Samsung documents that will prove that the company was aware of the fact that it was copying Apple’s intellectual property. McElhinny said that Samsung sold 37 million infringing phones and tablets in the U.S., and Apple is now seeking an average of $33 in damages for each phone as well as reasonable royalties on unsold devices.

While Apple is claiming that Samsung products, including the Galaxy S3, infringed five of its patents, Samsung has alleged that nine Apple devices, including the iPhone 5, infringed two of its patents, and is seeking $6.9 million in damages.

Here are the details, highlighted by iDownloadBlog:

Apple Patents

-U.S. Patent No. 5,946,647 for a “System and method for performing an action on a structure in computer-generated data”

-U.S. Patent No. 6,847,959 for a “Universal interface for retrieval of information in a computer system”

-U.S. Patent No. 7,761,414 for “Asynchronous data synchronization amongst devices”

-U.S. Patent No. 8,046,721 for “Unlocking a device by performing gestures on an unlock image”

-U.S. Patent No. 8,074,172 for a “Method, system, and graphical user interface for providing word recommendation”

Samsung Patents

-U.S. Patent No. 6,226,449 for an “Apparatus for recording and reproducing digital image and speech”

-U.S. Patent No. 5,579,239 for a “Remote video transmission system”

John Quinn, a lawyer for Samsung, told the jury that the South Korean tech giant’s phones use Google Inc.’s (NASDAQ:GOOG) Android operating system, so the features Apple is claiming to own were actually developed by Google.

“We will prove to you that, yes, Apple is a great company but they don't own everything," Reuters quoted Quinn as saying. “What this case is really about is Apple trying to limit consumer choice and to gain an unfair advantage over its one main competitor, Google's Android. It’s an attack on Android.”

McElhinny countered that the case is not about Google, because it is Samsung that decided to add the features to its phones. According to him, it is Samsung, not Google, which is “selling these products for a profit” and “keeps on infringing Apple’s intellectual property.”

Apple was awarded nearly $1 billion after the decision in a 2012 trial went against Samsung in San Jose, Calif., but the former failed to convince U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh to issue an order blocking the sales of Samsung phones in the country.

The latest case is Apple Inc. v. Samsung Electronics Co., 12-cv-00630, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California (San Jose).