Two tech titans are squaring off in federal court in a closely watched trial over control of the U.S. smartphone and computer tablet markets. (July 30)
AP Television News – AP Television News Clients Only
July 30, 2012 – San Jose, CA
1. Medium, US courthouse sign
2. Wide, line to enter courthouse
3. Medium, men in suits stand in entrance line
4. Apple PR manager speaks off camera to reporters
5. Close-up, man squats with brief case while waiting in security line
6. Wide, court workers bring in boxes of document evidence.
7. SOUNDBITE: (English) Charles Babcock, Editor-at-Large, Information Week:
“The average consumer has a stake in that this trial may decide how much competition there is in the smart phone industry. If Samsung, Apple’s primary competitor, ends up paying punitive damages, that would be a very hefty blow to any company, including Samsung. So let’s see how what the lay jury decides in its intelligence. Hopefully we’ll get a clarifying decision.”
8. Cutaway, of man in courthouse line looking at smart phone
9. SOUNDBITE: (English) Charles Babcock, Editor-at-Large, Information Week:
“There are many people in the industry who think the patent system is not equal to the task that it’s taken on, that it grants too broad a writ to certain companies because they got there first. Should someone be able to own the design of rectangular handheld devices? If that design has small curved corners, Apple has a patent to it but I can think of many devices that might take that same form factor or in the details might resemble the Apple device in some way and I would hope would still be allowed to come to market.”
AP Television News – AP Television News Clients Only
July 16, 2012 – New York City
10. Medium, salesman demonstrates Samsung tablet
11. Close-up, Samsung Galaxy Tablet
AP Television News – AP Television News Clients Only
July 30, 2012, Palo Alto, CA
12. SOUNDBITE: Robin Feldman, Professor, UC Hastings College of the Law:
“What’s at stake is real domination in the smart phone industry, which is a very fast moving and incredibly lucrative area of business. I think for the consumer, it would be better to have everybody in the space because they compete against each other. But for the big players, they’d rather knock everybody off and be the one left standing. That’s what’s going on here.”
AP Television News – AP Television News Clients Only
July 16, 2012 – New York City
13. Close-up, Samsung Galaxy Tab price sheet
14. Close-up, Samsung Galaxy Tablet
AP Television News – AP Television News Clients Only
Dec 9, 2011 – New York City
15. Apple iPad 2 on display at Apple Store
AP Television News – AP Television News Clients Only
Feb. 29, 2012 – San Francisco, California
16. Medium, iPad3
17. Close-up, iPad3
AP Television News – AP Television News Clients Only
July 25, 2012 – Campbell, California
18. Medium, man sitting with Apple iPad
STORYLINE:
Two tech titans are squaring off in federal court in a closely watched trial over control of the U.S. smartphone and computer tablet markets.
Apple filed a lawsuit against Samsung Electronics last year alleging the world’s largest technology company’s smartphones and computer tablets are illegal knockoffs of its popular iPhone and iPad products.
The Cupertino-based company is demanding $2.5 billion in damages, an award that would dwarf the largest patent-related verdict to date.
Samsung counters that Apple is doing the stealing and that some of the technology at issue _ such as the rounded rectangular designs of smartphones and tablets _ has been industry standards for years.
The U.S. trial is just the latest skirmish between the two over product designs. A similar trial began last week, and the two companies have been fighting in courts in the United Kingdom and Germany.
The case is one of some 50 lawsuits among myriad telecommunications companies jockeying for position in the burgeoning $219 billion market for smartphones and computer tablets.
In the United States, U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh in San Jose last month ordered Samsung to pull its Galaxy 10.1 computer tablet from the U.S. market pending the outcome of the trial, though the judge barred Apple attorneys from telling the jurors about the ban.
Legal observers say it’s rare that a patent battle with so much at stake doesn’t settle short of a trial.
Apple lawyers argue there is almost no difference between Samsung’s products and Apple’s and that the South Korean company’s internal documents show it copied Apple’s iconic designs and its interface.
Samsung denies the allegation and counter-charges that Apple copied its iconic iPhone from Sony. Samsung lawyers noted that the company has been developing mobile phones since 1991 and that Apple jumped into the market only in 2007.
END.
