The mammoth Apple-Samsung patent trial moved to the jury today, setting the stage for a verdict that could have huge implications for the hot market in smartphones and tablet computers.
US District Judge Lucy Koh began reading instructions to the nine-member jury in San Jose, California, as lawyers for the two tech giants readied closing arguments.
Apple, which accuses the South Korean electronics giant of copying the iPhone and iPad too closely, is seeking damages of up to $2.75 billion and an injunction that could knock some Samsung products off the US market.
Even a delay in sales could endanger Samsung’s position in the US market, where it is currently the top seller of smartphones.
Samsung has countered by arguing that its patents on wireless communication were infringed by Apple, and is demanding up to $422 million from the Silicon Valley manufacturer.
The trial is wrapping up after 10 days of testimony over three weeks, in which Apple put its own designers and executives on the stand, along with experts, all of whom accused Samsung of illegally copying Apple designs.
Samsung witnesses said meanwhile that they had come up with the designs and icons they used on their own.
However, internal Samsung documents introduced as evidence did show they were aware that they were behind Apple’s iPhone when it came to some user-interface features.
One Samsung designer described the gap between the iPhone and a Samsung smartphone as the “difference between Heaven and Earth.”
The case has been a particularly heated one, with lawyers from both sides filing hundreds of pages of objections against particular exhibits and witnesses.
At one point, Koh asked an Apple lawyer if he was “smoking crack” when he proposed to put more than 20 witnesses on the stand in the final day of testimony.
“First of all, I’m not smoking crack, your honour,” replied Apple lawyer Bill Lee.
The jury was expected to begin deliberations in the case on Wednesday, and will have to pore over a complicated 20-page form addressing hundreds of separate allegations, that Samsung violated Apple’s patents and trademarks.