Apple Inc. (AAPL) Rests, Samsung Opens Its Case in Patent Trial

The landmark patent trial between the two giants of the smartphone market, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Samsung Electronics Corporation, has seen all of one side of the story. Monday, Apple rested its side of the case, and Samsung began telling its side of the story. Apple ended its attack on Samsung’s alleged patent-infringement  with an accountant, while Samsung started its counterclaim with a couple of computer scientists.

Samsung started its case by focusing on its counterclaim against Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), charging the U.S.-based company with stealing its own patents. University of Maryland professor Benjamin Bederson showed his “rubberbanding” invention – where an iPad or iPhone screen seems to bounce when it reaches the end of a file – and explained that the feature was put onto a Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE:HPQ) HPiPAQ 1900 pocket personal computer as far back as 2004 – three years before the release of the iPhone. He also referred to his “Launch Tile” system of 36 tiles, or icons, on a screen that allowed users to interact with the images and zoom in or out.

The other scientist, Adam Bogue – president of Circle Twelve located in Massachusetts – talked about his Diamond Touch feature, which was introduced as far back as 2001.  The feature involved a table of images that can be accessed using the user’s hands. A “table cloth” technology developed in 2005 – two years pre-iPhone – allowed a user to pull the table back, grab an item and let the table “snap back” into place.

While Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has been contending for two weeks that Samsung has infringed on its patents to make its smartphoes look, feel and act like iPhones, Samsung is clearly coming right back with its charges that it had the inside track on certain technology patents first and that Apple actually is the one that should be paying damages and not Samsung, as an accountant claimed at the end of Apple’s testimony.

This trial will have large implications for investors, including many institutional investors and hedge funds that have positions in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) stock. Among these is Dan Loeb’s Third Point, which established a $217 million position during the first quarter of 2012 (average price of just under $600 a share).