Patent case over Google winds down

Apple and Samsung Electronics head toward the conclusion of their second U.S. patent trial with one last chance to make a case to jurors on whether the $2 billion case is actually a proxy war over Google’s Android operating system.

Each side will get two hours today to sum up its case in the same San Jose, California, courtroom where Apple was awarded $930 million in the first trial two years ago. This time, with most of Apple’s patent-infringement claims relating to Android functions, Samsung has cast the iPhone maker’s case as a bid to displace Google as the leading supplier of smartphone systems and limit consumer choice.

The court fight lags behind the latest technology - the devices at issue don’t include Samsung’s Android-based Galaxy S5, released this month in 125 countries. Google nevertheless retains a stake in the outcome. An Apple victory would allow the iPhone maker to seek a court order barring U.S. sales of Samsung’s earlier Android-equipped phones.

The world’s top two smartphone makers have spent hundreds of millions of dollars in legal fees on battles across four continents to dominate a market that was valued at $338.2 billion last year, according to data.

Samsung had 31 percent of industry revenue, compared with 15 percent for Apple, whose share of the market has shrunk as the touch-screen interface became more commonplace and Samsung, LG Electronics and Lenovo Group have introduced lower-cost alternatives.

In the initial trial, Apple failed to win an order barring sales of infringing Samsung phones. It has said winning such an order was more important than money damages.

Samsung has argued throughout the four-week trial that Apple is really attacking Android.

Samsung called several Google engineers as witnesses to bolster the point that it didn’t need to copy Apple’s technology for the software on its phones.

Bloomberg