Samsung, Apple patent damages retrial opens as Samsung changes tune

As the Samsung, Apple patent damages trial opened yesterday the Android giant began singing a different tune. According to a live blog by Howard Mintz from the San Jose Mercury News, Samsung attorney Bill Price didn’t continue the company’s long-standing claim that the case mostly centered on “rounded corners,” instead his argument focused on the specific amount the company owes its chief competitor.

Representing Samsung, attorney Bill Price countered in his own opening remarks, “Apple is simply asking for much more money than it’s entitled to.”

In fact, Price all but admitted that the company did use “elements of Apple’s property,” a contention the Korean giant had long fought to undermine.

“This is a case not where we’re disputing that the 13 phones contain some elements of Apple’s property,” Price admitted, adding, “that doesn’t mean Apple gets to come in here and ask for a windfall …for more than it is entitled.”

Samsung claims it earned “nowhere close” to the $3.5 billion on the 13 infringing devices, instead arguing the number is a more earthly $52 million “And that, he says, is what Apple should get in damages.”

Well, the Cupertino company begs to differ and wants the trial to focus on a single question according to Apple attorney Harold McElhinny: “…what damages must Samsung pay Apple for violating its intellectual property rights. Samsung sold 10.7 million infringing products. Samsung, the company that broke the law, took in $3.5 billion. You will decide how much of that $3.5 billion will be returned to Apple.”

For its part Apple is seeking $113 million in lost profits for 360,000 iPhones the company believes it could have sold without competing against Samsung, another $231 million in improper profits Samsung collected on the sales of the infringing devices and $34 million in patent royalties for a total of $379 million. The amount approved by a jury will be added to the $560 million in damages Apple was awarded in the original trial that is not part of this retrial.

While this patent damages retrial kicks into gear for a second day later this morning the two companies are also preparing for a second patent trial that will begin next spring. The second case involves a new group of Apple patents against Samsung devices that will likely be off the market for more than two years by the time the trial begins.