Apple, Samsung fire final salvos as case closes

SAN JOSE, Calif. – Apple and Samsung both made compelling points in closing arguments of a case in which Apple seeks more than $2.751 billion. Here’s a sampler of their comments from four hours in front of a crowd that extended into two overflow courtrooms.

Apple’s lead attorney Harold J. McElhinny laid out a plausible time line marked by documents he said jurors could follow to conclude Samsung infringed its patents.

“Through 2009 Samsung was trying to compete fairly [with the iPhone], but Samsung sales continued to decline,” said McElhinny. “At a Samsung executive meeting the head of the [mobile] division said Samsung was facing ‘a crisis of design’…and carriers told them they had to make something like the iPhone,” he said.

Among the documents he cited was a 100-page Samsung report comparing feature-by-feature its Galaxy S1 and the iPhone, generally recommending the S1 adopt iPhone techniques.

“When Samsung [user interface] designer Jeeyeung Wang spoke quite movingly about three intense months of [work on Samsung’s first Galaxy smartphone], I almost fell out of my chair when she said it--she said it was a three-month effort,” McElhinny said. “In those three months Samsung was able to copy Apples’ four years of innovation without taking any of the risks because they were copying the world’s most successful product,” he said.

With the Galaxy S in 2010, “Samsung got exactly what it wanted--its sales that had been doldering along suddenly took off …a whole series of iPhone knock offs followed up through the day Apple sued them,” he said.

“Samsung makes fun of us for asking for billions of dollars,” he said, but claimed the Korean giant sold 22 million infringing phones making $8.16 billion in revenue. “The damages should be large because the infringement has been massive,” he said.

Apple is trying to recoup Samsung profits of $2.241 billion on those phones as well as estimates of its own lost profits of $488.8 million and royalties of $21.24 million. Given many variables in the case, if jurors find infringement they should at least award Apple $519 million, he added.