Lawyers for Apple and Samsung on Tuesday presented their final arguments to the jury in their long-running smartphone patent battle.
Apple lawyer William Lee argued that the South Korean giant had brazenly copied Apple’s designs in order to compete with the iPhone, while Samsung lawyer Bill Price accused Apple of overhyping the extent of its patents.
“These patents are very narrow,” Price said, according to the San Jose Mercury News’ live blog of the trial. “Apple doesn’t own beautiful and sexy.” The case centers on the level of damages Samsung should pay for infringing on Apple patents in 13 different phones. The original jury ordered Samsung to pay over $1 billion to Apple. But US District Court Judge Lucy Koh found that the jury had miscalculated and ordered a new trial to determine the correct level of penalties.
Apple is demanding some $380 million in damages from Samsung, while Samsung says the damages should be limited to the $52 million in profit attributed to the 13 devices found to be in violation.
The court drama came a day after a Washington DC appeals court issued a separate ruling that boosts Apple’s chances of securing an import ban on Samsung products found to violate its patents.
In its ruling, the appellate court ordered Judge Koh to reconsider Apple’s demands for a ban, arguing that she was too strict in an earlier judgement that the ban was unwarranted because the violated patents were not a main feature of the infringing devices.