The fifth day of the Apple vs Samsung courtroom trial started on a bad note for Samsung, as it got slammed by Judge Koh for accusing Apple of tampering with evidence. The evidence in this case is an image of Samsung’s Epic Touch 4G.
Samsung’s lawyers accused Apple’s counsel of tweaking the layout of a Samsung phone to make it look more like an iPhone, stating that the phone doesn’t represent the state of the Epic 4G Touch out of the box. This was followed by the team presenting its own photo showing a different layout with a large number of homescreens, claiming it was taken at night on Sunday.
Judge Koh took the matter in her own hands and asked Samsung’s team whether their photo was legitimate. She pointed several flaws in the photo, one of them being, missing Google Search widget, which the company’s attorneys said was present on the device out of the box. The other flaw that Koh noted was the date on the screen in the image read Monday’s date, not Sunday as the team said. The Samsung attorney admitted that he misspoke. When Koh asked Apple’s team about any tampering, they denied any manipulation.
Koh overruled Samsung’s objection, stating that “I find it not credible that Apple tampered with these phones.” She further stated that both parties will have to agree together in advance of any images used for joint exhibits, warning them not to repeat similar incidences.
As the trial moved forward, Peter Bressler continued with his testimony from the previous day. After answering questions from Apple’s team, Samsung attorney Charles Verhoeven cross examined him again. But since the discussion was not moving ahead from the ‘substantially similar’ statement, Verhoeven let Bressler step down.
Followed by Bressler, Susan Kare who created some of the earliest Macintosh graphics and icons took the stand to testify for Apple. She walked the jury through her evaluation of Apple’s icon design patent and trade dress claims with the accused Samsung phones. Picking apart specific phones, she said that the set of screens is confusingly similar to the iPhone patent because of its grid, four rows of icons and colorful mix of square icons, adding that, “It seemed likely to me that Samsung used iPhone screen graphics as a guide.” She reviewed comparable phones such as BlackBerry Torch and concluded that icons for similar products in function, could well be designed differently.
When cross examining Kare, Verhoeven used the same tactic of minute details, that had worked on the previous day. His point was that by the time a consumer got to the applications, they’d recognize they weren’t using an iPhone, as before reaching the application screen, they’ll pass through home screen with the company logo. A sequence that the user would go through, every time they start the device. Kare responded by saying she doesn’t know about consumer behavior, nor is ‘startup experience’ her field of expertise. Verhoeven then began to dissect Samsung’s features and icons, causing Kare to concede the differences or omissions between the two phones on specifics.
Russel Winer a marketing expert was Apple’s next witness, who spoke about market dilution that occurs due to customer confusion. He stated that since Samsung’s products caused confusion with Apple’s, it has affected Apple’s marketing and ability to garner more sales and hence generate more revenues. Though, when Samsung’s Verhoeven cross examined Winer, he pointed out that Winers theories do not have any data from Apple to back them up and also that Winer was a paid Apple expert.
The last witness for the day was Hal Poret, a researcher at ORC International. Poret had prepared a survey for Apple in which he concluded that the iPhone and the iPad had secondary meaning for consumers. As per his research 60% of people associated the look of the iPhone with Apple whereas about 57-75% associated that of the tablet with the iPad. Samsung’s attorney questioned Poret about the time frame of the survey and stated that the results may vary at different times. To this Poret simply stated that the lawyer is confused about all this.
This was all for the 5th day of the trial between Apple vs Samsung. Keep watching this space for more on the trial.
