Apple claims Samsung copied iPhone tech

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- An attorney for Apple told a jury Tuesday that rival Samsung faced two options to compete in the booming cellphone market after Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone to critical acclaim in 2007: Innovate or copy.

Attorney Harold McElhinny claimed Samsung Electronics chose to copy, making its smartphones and computer tablets illegal knockoffs of Apple's popular products.

Samsung "has copied the entire design and user experience" of Apple's iPhone and iPad," McElhinny told a 10-person jury during his opening remarks at the closely watched patent trial.

Samsung denies the claims and its lawyers were expected to deliver their opening statement later in the day.

Samsung has previously countered that Apple did the stealing. It has also said some of the technology at issue — such as the rounded rectangular designs of smartphones and tablets — has been the industry standard for years.

The witness lists of both sides are long on experts, engineers and designers and short on familiar names. For example, Apple CEO Tim Cook is not scheduled to testify.

In court documents, Apple alleges that its iPad and iPhone are being copied by Samsung and wants the products pulled from stores and the South Korean company to pay $2.5 billion in damages. Samsung, in its filings, calls Apple's request for damages an "absurd windfall" at the expense of consumers, saying that iPhones run on its wireless technologies and, therefore, Apple should pay it royalties.

Samsung and other mobile-device makers, in part, serve as proxies for Google because they run on its Android mobile operating system software. Apple's relationship with Google turned bitter when the late Steve Jobs learned that the search giant was coming out with its HTC Nexus smartphone. Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt had been serving on Apple's board but resigned.

"I'm going to destroy Android, because it's a stolen product," Apple co-founder Jobs told biographer Walter Isaacson. "I'm willing to go thermonuclear war on this." Apple sued over the likeness of the HTC Nexus to its iPhone.

The trial comes as Apple has scored five preliminary injunctions against Samsung, two against Motorola and two against HTC, he says.

Google is expected to be closely watching the case with lawyers all around the trial.

Apple is waging war about similarities in hardware design, software functions and packaging, according to court documents.

Apple's key allegation against Samsung relates to an Apple patent that covers touch-based dragging of documents, as well as pinch-to-zoom and twist-to-rotate capabilities. Apple is also staking a claim on the tap-to-zoom function that makes text or images pop up larger. The company says Samsung infringes on its scrolling patent as well.

Consumers could notice some differences if mobile-device makers are forced to alter their products. Still, if Apple prevails, it wouldn't be long before these companies would create technology workarounds, legal experts say. Samsung has already devised technology workarounds to keep some of its devices in the market.

"Apple has had some wins in court," Mueller says. "But what may be even more important: Its intellectual property enforcement has discouraged many companies in the industry from building products that bear too much of a resemblance to Apple's gadgets."