Samsung Report Reveals Design Differences With iPhone

Attention at the Apple versus Samsung patent infringement trial is expected to shift to a 132-page confidential Samsung report, which reveals on a point-by-point basis how Samsung’s design comes up short compared to the iPhone.

The document, introduced into evidence by Apple during the trial in US District Court for the Northern District of California, is meant to support Apple’s contention that Samsung copied Apple’s design for its new smartphones and, in doing so, violated Apple’s patents on the devices. Apple also accuses Samsung of copying design features of Apple’s iPad tablet computer in its Galaxy Tab line of tablets.

Confidential Report

The report, labeled  “Highly Confidential- Attorneys’ Eyes Only,” compares design features with both phones depicted in side-by-side images that display the calendar and calculator functions, the Web browser, connectivity, multimedia and other areas.

For instance, the report compares the calendar functions and notes that when an iPhone user taps on a particular date, a window appears below with a summary of their appointments that day. But on the Samsung model, the “legibility” of the calendar items is poor because the window they appear in is too small. In another example, the report is critical of the telephone keypad screen on the Samsung for “poor utilisation of space”  compared to the iPhone’s.

The analysis also praises the clean look of the iPhone home screen that is designed to prevent application icons from being repeated on the home screen, while the image of the Samsung home screen has three icons all indicating the Gmail application. Samsung phones run Google’s Android mobile operating system. A graphic designer called into court by Apple testified that she thinks Samsung copied the graphic design of Apple icons.

The report describes the iPhone user interface for connecting to a Wi-Fi network as “intuitive,” while noting that a Samsung user has to go to two screens and take additional steps to establish a connection.

Samsung Denial

Samsung executives, during their trial testimony, have not denied that they looked at iPhones and other smartphone brands in designing Samsung devices, but deny that they actually copied design features of the iPhone.

Presented with an excerpt of the 2010 report by an Apple attorney, Justin Denison, chief strategy officer for Samsung’s mobile business, acknowledged in testimony 3 August that Samsung studied Apple products when developing its own competing models, but denied that it went so far as to copy Apple’s design in its products.

In fact, Scott Forstall, the Apple senior vice president in charge of the iOS software for iPhones and iPads, testified that Apple, too, did “teardowns” of competitors’ products, including Samsung’s. However, he said that was done to benchmark the designs of rivals, not to copy them.

Apple is seeking $2.5 billion ($1.6bn) in damages from Samsung for patent infringement.

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