An industrial designer testifying for Apple Inc. in its multibillion-dollar trial against Samsung Electronics Co. (005930) said the South Korean company copied patented technology for smartphones and tablet computers.
Apple yesterday called as a witness Peter Bressler, the founder and chairman of Philadelphia-based BresslerGroup and an inventor on 70 design and utility patents who teaches product design at the University of Pennsylvania.
Bressler said he had studied different versions of the iPhone in preparation for his testimony. Shown diagrams from Apple’s patents and actual phones based on them, he described the “rectangular proportion” of the diagrams as providing “a specific impression or design.”
The phones “embody the design of the patent,” he said in response to questions from Apple’s lawyer, Rachel Krevans.
Bressler said he performed an infringement analysis of the Galaxy S 4G phone and found that its “flat, uninterrupted surface” and “rectangular proportions” infringe Apple’s patents. He said he arrived at the same conclusion after doing a similar analysis for more than 10 other Samsung phones and a Samsung tablet.
He is an expert in “user research, human factors application, manufacturing processes and innovative criteria conflict resolution,” according to his website. His testimony may continue to lay the groundwork for Apple’s infringement claims, which Apple started last week with Scott Forstall, the company’s senior vice president in charge of iPhone and iPad software. He gave jurors the first detailed testimony about one of the patents at issue.
Earlier yesterday the jury heard from Samsung Vice President Justin Denison, the company’s chief strategy officer for Samsung Telecommunications America, who said he finds “offensive” claims his company is copying Apple.
Samsung is proud of the “products it produces, and all the hard work that goes into bringing those products to market,” Denison said. Samsung “does an excellent job of remaining very humble,” with its employees possessing a “self-critical” attitude that drives “change, innovation,” Denison said under questioning from Samsung’s lawyer, John Quinn.
Apple and Samsung are battling for leadership in the global smartphone market. As companies including Research In Motion Ltd. (RIM) and Nokia Oyj (NOK1V) face mounting losses, the two rivals are garnering a larger piece of the market’s profits.
The case is Apple Inc. v. Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., 11- cv-01846, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California (San Jose).
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