Apple v. Samsung Electronics: The Patent War Claims, Uncut

The gloves have emphatically come off in the patent war between Apple and Samsung Electronics.

A courtroom confrontation, scheduled to begin July 30, is only one of dozens of suits and countersuits around the world involving these two smartphone giants. But this one promises to be more lively than most. It’s a jury trial, set in Silicon Valley, in a federal district court in San Jose, California. The document discovery and deposition-taking by the corps of lawyers on both sides, running for months, will be rolled out in this showdown. The broad themes of the accusations on each side are well known by now. Apple plans to build its case using its Korean rival’s own words against it. An unredacted version of Apple’s trial brief bluntly states that Samsung was well aware that its smartphones and tablets bore a striking resemblance to Apple’s iPhone and iPad and that the issue was one the company discussed internally.

Samsung does have some ammunition of its own. Specifically, some 2006 internal design presentations that outline a mobile UI similar to the one that ultimately debuted on the iPhone, a handy before-and-after-the-iPhone-handset comparison and some internal Apple emails that it claims suggest “Apple’s ‘revolutionary’ iPhone design was derived from the designs of a competitor — Sony.” Add to that Samsung’s claim that Apple’s lawsuit is anticompetitive and its argument that the iPhone maker should pay it for using patented technology, without which it “could not have become a successful participant in the mobile telecommunications industry,” and next week’s trial is shaping up to be a contentious one indeed.