Apple Inc. (AAPL) and Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (BC94) were once again facing each other in a patent battle, where iPhone maker tried to square off a damages retrial against its biggest mobile rival, reports Reuters.
Harold McElhinney, Apple Attorney, in a California federal court told that Samsung Electronics is liable to pay $379.8 million as it has violated five iPhone patents, whereas William Price, Samsung Attorney, said that the company is liable to pay only $52.7 million.
A brief history
Apple, last year, was awarded $1 billion in damages after it proved that Samsung copied various features of its iPhone such as using fingers to zoom the screen, black glass screen and iPhone’s flat design.
The verdict, last year, was a major win for Apple in its war against Android platform, which is also used by Samsung, in its devices. At that time, Apple’s request for the permanent ban on some of the Samsung products in the US market was refused by the district judge, Lucy Koh. However, Apple did appeal against that decision.
In another hearing, in March, Judge Koh ruled that previous jury committed some errors that affected $400 million of the claim, and thereafter, she ordered a rehearing of that portion.
Apple demanding windfall damages
McElhinny said in court, on Wednesday, that Samsung has earned $3.5 billion revenue by selling 10.7 million handsets that infringe Apple’s patents, and claimed that Apple is entitled to be paid “whole”.
During the trial, McElhinney showed a video of the founder Steve Jobs, unveiling the iPhone in 2007, asking the jury members to remember the time when iPhone’s features were new and the business risk that the company took to make the iPhone.
“If Apple had invested all that time and money and product had not worked, it would have been a major blow,” McElhinny said.
Samsung Attorney, William Price told that even $52 million is a not small amount for Samsung to pay, further agreeing that the Korean firm did violated some of Apple’s patents, but those ideas were not new.
“Apple is simply asking for much more money than it’s entitled to,” Price said.
