Google Inc. (GOOG) asked Samsung Electronics Co. (005930) to change the design of its phones and tablets to look less like Apple Inc. (AAPL)’s devices, a lawyer for the iPhone maker said in court.
The lawyer, Harold McElhinny, asked Samsung designer Kim Jin Soo today if he recalled an e-mail exchange in 2010 at Samsung about Google’s request. The e-mails were introduced as evidence in the third week of a multibillion-dollar intellectual-property jury trial in federal court in San Jose, California.
Kim, speaking through an interpreter, denied he was aware of Google’s request.
“Whether that is a fact or not, I cannot confirm that for you, and whether such statement was made, if it was the official position of Google, or by someone made†at a different level of the company, “I don’t know such things,†Kim said.
Apple sued Samsung in April 2011, accusing it of copying patented designs for mobile devices, and Samsung countersued. The case is the first to go before a federal jury in a battle being waged on four continents for dominance in a smartphone market valued by Bloomberg Industries at $219.1 billion.
Samsung has used Google’s Android free operating system to build phones that propelled it to the number one spot in the phone market.
Internal E-Mail
McElhinny showed a Feb. 16, 2010, internal Samsung e-mail referring to one of the company’s tablets. “Since it is too similar to Apple, make it noticeably different starting with the front side,†the message reads.
Jim Prosser, a spokesman for Mountain View, California- based Google, didn’t immediately respond to a voice-mail seeking comment on the testimony.
Apple is claiming at least $2.5 billion in damages for patent and trade-dress infringement. Cupertino, California-based Apple also wants to make permanent a preliminary ban it won on U.S. sales of a Samsung tablet, and extend the ban to Samsung smartphones.
Apple’s Patents
Samsung, based in Suwon, South Korea, is trying to persuade the jury to declare Apple’s patents invalid and to find that Apple has infringed its patents.
The judge presiding over the case today urged the chief executive officers of the contending companies to talk again before the jury begins deliberating. U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh, who has given each side 25 hours to present its case, said deliberations may begin as early as Aug. 21.
Koh earlier this year ordered Apple CEO Tim Cook to meet face to face with his counterpart at Samsung, Choi Gee Sung, who has since been replaced as CEO by Kwon Oh Hyun. The May conference didn’t yield a settlement.
“It’s at least worth one more try,†Koh said today.
Apple shipments of iPads surged 44 percent to 17 million in the second quarter, giving the company its biggest share of the tablet market in more than a year as devices from competitors lost ground. Apple’s market share climbed to 69.6 percent in the quarter from 58.1 percent in the previous three-month period, according to a report yesterday from IHS.
Samsung had a 9.2 percent share in the second quarter, down from 10.8 percent.
The case is Apple Inc. v. Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., 11- cv-01846, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California (San Jose).
To contact the reporter on this story: Joel Rosenblatt in San Francisco at jrosenblatt@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Andrew Dunn at adunn8@bloomberg.net
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