The testy judge!

"Unless you're smoking crack you know these witnesses aren't going to be called."

Judge gets testy as Apple-Samsung patent trial nears end

Howard Mintz
San Jose Mercury News
Friday, August 17, 2012

Samsung Electronics' Galaxy S, left, and Apple's iPhone 4 are displayed at a mobile phone shop in Seoul, South Korea. (Ahn Young-Soon/AP)

SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA — Samsung ended its case on Thursday, urging a federal court jury to order Apple to pay the South Korean-tech giant hundreds of millions of dollars in damages after depicting Apple as greedily inflating its own unprecedented estimates of what their epic patent feud is worth.

With the trial headed to jury deliberations next week, Samsung expert David Teece calculated that Apple owes Samsung between $200 million and $400 million in damages for infringing several of its basic patents.

And another expert concluded Apple owes at least $22 million in royalties for a different set of Samsung smartphone patents.

At the same time, Samsung’s experts scoffed at Apple’s estimate that Samsung owes it between $2.5 billion to $2.75 billion in damages if a jury sides with allegations that Samsung copied the iPhone and iPad in its smartphones and tablets.

Michael Wagner, Samsung’s expert, said Apple’s estimates were flawed. If a jury sides with Apple, Wagner testified, the damages should be in the $520 million range, far less than Apple’s claim of billions to recover Samsung’s profits on infringing devices and Apple’s lost profits.

The testimony came as the trial is winding down, with Apple expected to finish up Friday with a few witnesses in its rebuttal case. Closing arguments are set for Tuesday before U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh.

As part of a global legal battle, Apple sued Samsung, accusing the maker of popular Galaxy smartphones and tablets of deliberately copying iPhone and iPad designs and features. Samsung has denied copying and attacked Apple for trying to squelch competition with its legal claims.

Thursday’s proceedings were highlighted by Koh’s ongoing frustration with trying to rein in the two legal armadas representing Apple and Samsung, pushing them to finish their cases within the strict time limits she set at the beginning of trial.

When Apple unveiled a list of 22 more possible witnesses, Koh exploded, calling it “ridiculous” and declaring, “Unless you’re smoking crack, you know these witnesses aren’t going to be called.”

Thursday’s testimony was far more placid, as both Apple and Samsung tried to close a few loops in their cases with experts and employees.

Once Samsung finished with its damages experts, Apple began to wrap its case with a defence against Samsung’s patent allegations. Several Apple expert witnesses testified that Apple does not infringe Samsung’s patents, such as one that allows photos to be emailed or another that plays background music.