Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) called an accountant to the stand as an expert witness in the company’s landmark patent-infringement lawsuit against Samsung Corporation, and the accountant claimed that Samsung made $8 billion of revnue over a two-year period from products that are under dispute in this case, as having infringed on patents secured by Apple.
Terry Musika, former partner at PriceWaterhouseCoopers, testified that he and a group of other accountants and analysts calculated that of the $30.4 billion in U.S. tablet and smartphone sales by Samsung, more than $8 billion of it came from copying the iPhone, iPad and/or other patents owned by Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL). This included the first Samsung flagship, the Galaxy S smartphone, which was released in the summer of 2010.
While Samsung was expected to cross-examine Musika later Monday and into Tuesday, he fired off a salvo that basically set the ultimate tone for what Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is seeking. Apple contends that Samsung would not be the leader in smartphone sales, and in fact would be a shell of itself, without copying Apple’s patents. Musika even noted a Samsung document as far back as 2007 that mentioned the iPhone as the future in the smartphone market over the ensuring five years. Samsung will have the challenge to establish itself as having better phones on their own merit, not by stealing or copying anything Apple was doing.
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is asking for $2.75 billion in damages from Samsung, which it claims includes lost profits for the infringing of its patents. Samsung contends that Apple has infringed on some of its wireless technology patents, and claims that many Apple patents are “industry-standard” patents and thus should be open to the marketplace.
While there has been a lot going on in the trial – much of it very technical and probably too high for many general audiences to understand – the media seem to be painting a story sympathetic to Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL). And with a jury trial, there is a danger that the media may influence a jury by spinning news that might distort the actual evidence presented. Whether that will actually happen in this case remains to be seen, but one perspective considers that the media may not be entirely impartial in this case, and thus could be a factor in the final verdict.
For sure, billionaire David Einhorn is watching this trial closely, as his Greenlight Capital, with an $877 million position in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) stock at the end of March, is one of many hedge funds to hold Apple stock prominently in their portfolios. Check out the other hedge-fund positions with this company.
