SAN JOSE — A key Apple (AAPL) witness on Thursday served as the linchpin of the Cupertino company’s bid to pry another $380 million from rival Samsung in their patent battle, testifying that is what Samsung’s copying of iPhone and iPad technology cost Apple’s bottom line.
During nearly a day of testimony, Julie Davis, hired as Apple’s damages expert, outlined how 13 Samsung devices already found to have violated Apple’s patent rights directly affected Apple’s iPhone and iPad sales and profits. The bottom line, she told the jury, is that Apple would have sold another 360,000 smartphones and tablets if Samsung hadn’t marketed its competing devices with some of Apple’s patented features, including its design.
Apple has told the jury that Samsung should pay $380 million in damages and royalties for using Apple technology in smartphones and tablets such as the Nexus and the original Galaxy tablet, in large part because of lost sales from Samsung products. Davis told the jury she was “very confident” those sales would have gone to Apple.
A chart presented to the jury shows the two Samsung devices that should result in the highest damage awards: the Infuse4G phone at $135 million and Droid Charge at $81 million. Both are part of an older line of Samsung devices replaced on the U.S. market by newer smartphone models.
Samsung attorneys argue that Apple is inflating the impact of those Samsung sales, urging the jury to assess no more than $52 million in total damages. A Samsung expert is expected to rebut Davis’ calculations.
The testimony came in the third day of a retrial of the damages phase of the patent feud between the world’s two most powerful smartphone and tablet makers. A federal jury last year awarded Apple $1 billion, finding that Samsung trampled on Apple’s patent and trademark rights, but U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh slashed the damage award by more than $400 million because the jury did not properly calculate damages on 13 infringing Samsung devices.
An eight-member jury is now revisiting the issue in a trial expected to conclude early next week.
Phil Schiller, a top Apple marketing executive, briefly took the stand Thursday, describing the development of the iPhone. He is expected to return Friday. During last year’s trial, Schiller testified that Samsung had “ripped off a number of our design elements.”
Howard Mintz covers legal affairs. Contact him at 408-286-0236 or follow him at Twitter.com/hmintz
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(c)2013 the San Jose Mercury News (San Jose, Calif.)
