Apple Witness at $2 Billion Samsung Trial Is All About Sales Ban
Apple Inc. (AAPL) showed that it’s aiming beyond $2 billion in damages in its trial against Samsung Electronics Co. by calling a witness whose studies were previously used to argue for a ban on U.S. sales of the Galaxy maker’s devices.
Jurors heard today from a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor who presented a revised version of a survey on consumer demand for smartphone technology that Apple relied on in earlier, unsuccessful bids for a court order blocking Samsung sales. If Apple convinces the jury that Samsung has infringed its patents, the iPhone maker can ask again for a judge to impose a sales ban, which the company has said is more important than monetary compensation.
Experts have said it will be difficult for Apple to win a sales ban after losing two requests before U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh in San Jose, California, following the companies’ first trial in 2012. The survey results presented today by MIT professor John R. Hauser are meant to address Koh’s finding in March that Apple failed to show in its earlier requests how its patented smartphone features drive consumer demand for the infringing Samsung products.
“The features associated with the patents have a measurable impact on consumer demand,” Hauser testified.
Apple and Samsung continue their worldwide legal battles atop a smartphone market that was valued at $338.2 billion last year, according to Bloomberg data. Samsung had 31.3 percent of industry revenue, compared with 15.2 percent for Apple, whose share of the market has shrunk as the touch-screen interface has become commonplace and Samsung, LG Electronics Inc. and Lenovo Group Ltd. have introduced lower-cost alternatives.
The case is Apple Inc. v. Samsung Electronics Co. (005930) Ltd., 12-630, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California (San Jose).
(By Joel Rosenblatt)
Source: bloomberg
