With the he-said she-said, lawyer repartee coming to a close in what's only a ho-hum multibillion dollar trial between two of the world's biggest tech companies on Tuesday, the path is clear fro the next step of the legal process: jury deliberations, yahoo (not referring to the website, that'd be the last thing we need)!
The process is set to go underway today, after the CEO's of the two companies failed to bury the hatchet in last minute talks.
Later today, the jury has a heavy decision to make. In one corner, there's Apple, for which in their closing arguments, lawyers accuse Samsung of having a "crisis of design," and demanding that Samsung pay them a whopping $2.5 billion for "patent infringement." If awarded, it would be the largest patent verdict in the U.S., which would only add to their recent milestone of becoming the most valuable company of all time. Yknow, no big deal. Apple's lead attorney, Harold McElhiny, says that Samsung has made sales of $8.16 billion using "stolen" Apple tech.
Samsung's defense? It's lawyer claimed that Samsung was only giving consumers what they want, and that their design was indicative of the evolution of smartphone technology. An unfortunate slip, or maybe some honesty poking through (from a lawyer, really?) Samsung's lawyer did give Apple a little bit of credit, when during his closing arguments, he said, "It's not against the law in this country to be inspired by your competition."
Regardless, after three weeks of testimony, it all comes down to this. Or does it?
The two companies have been duking it out in courtoom all over the globe: the UK, Australia, Germany, etc.
The recent US trial is just the latest, and likely far from the last legal brouhaha between the two. Even if the case is decided, don't expect the issue to go away entirely. The Associated Press is reporting that this case is just one of many between various phone and tech companies. With a $219 billion market at stake, the smartphone war is here to stay.
