Apple expert faces tough questions after saying Samsung infringed patents

An Apple design expert told a federal jury that Samsung's smartphones and tablets violated the patents on the iPhone and iPad but encountered rough sledding as relentless grilling by Samsung's lawyers challenged his conclusions.

With the Apple vs. Samsung trial moving into its second week, Peter Bressler, a professional design expert, testified throughout the day on his evaluation of a range of Samsung products he determined infringed Apple's patents. Apple's bid for $2.5 billion in damages is relying on such expert testimony to prove that Samsung "slavishly copied" the iPhone and iPad. "It is my opinion there are a number of Samsung phones and two Samsung tablets that are substantially the same as the designs in (the iPhone and iPad) patents," Bressler testified. But Charles Verhoeven, Samsung's understated lead attorney, spent hours trying to take apart Bressler's findings, repeatedly showing diagrams of distinctions in Apple and Samsung smartphones and tablets to undercut the expert's position.