There has been enough back and forth over the last eighteen months between Apple, Samsung and the courts to ensure that we have heard the words patent and infringement enough times to last us for the rest of our lives. It hasn’t been a secret that the two companies have been in major conflict over various technologies and features that have been included in Samsung’s tablet and smartphone products, as well as some questions over the design of their releases. Samsung obviously hasn’t taken the situation lying down and although Apple is one of their largest component customers, they have chosen to fight the allegations head on, with it eventually ending up at trial this week.
Apple is a huge company and currently occupy the top spot as the highest earning technology company in the world. But let’s not forget that it hasn’t always been this way and it wasn’t even that long ago when the Cupertino based company were hiding in the shadows pondering what their next move should be to reinvent their failing company. It seems that the legal team which is representing Apple during this trial have chosen that past uncertainty as a main part of their early case strategy.
As the trial gets into its infancy, the Apple attorneys have started their bid for a successful ruling by making an attempt at painting the company as an underdog that entered the smartphone industry with no guarantees of success. In fact, lead attorney Harold McElhinny went as far as saying that if the iPhone had flopped and gained no traction whatsoever in the marketplace, it would have been a disastrous commercial failure and could have brought about the end of the company which the late Steve Jobs founded all those years ago.
With Apple hoping to get to the end of the trial with an award of more than $2 billion in damages, they may have to provide a little more than an attempted tug on the heart strings of those overseeing the case. Although it may be true that Jobs and Schiller were taking a great gamble with the company, that is occasionally the nature of business and we all often rise or fall by our decisions.
Thankfully, Apple rose dramatically through the success of the iPhone and it is this success, they are claiming, led Samsung to change the design and aesthetics of the products that followed. The same attorney, Harold McElhinny, took the opportunity to present visuals of Samsung devices that pre-dated the original iPhone release as well as a range of products that have followed. Quite frankly, the images speak for themselves.
With a ten man jury already being chosen and the presentations and arguments by both sides well underway, this case should make for extremely interesting watch. Judging by the information which we have already seen from the legal documents before the trial started, it looks as though both Samsung and Apple will be presenting extremely compelling cases. Stay tuned for developments.
(via Cnet)
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