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The jury in the Apple vs. Samsung patent trial in California came to a verdict much more swiftly than some experts had predicted, given the complexity of the issues at play. So how did Apple win the day? As WSJ laid out in this story today, the Silicon Valley company’s legal team crafted a strong storyline that used expert testimony and clear visuals to drive home this point: Samsung intentionally copied Apple’s designs for its iconic iPhone and iPad. “Once your litigation moves from stage of filing motions with a judge to a jury trial, your focus has to shift,” said Brian Love, an assistant professor at Santa Clara University School of Law. “At a jury trial it becomes less about technical points than storytelling and emotion.”
Legal experts said Apple’s South Korean rival had a harder time, in part because Samsung’s lawyers had two jobs. They had to rebut Apple’s infringement claims–essentially by saying that Apple wasn’t as innovative as it claimed to be–while also pressing the company’s countersuit claiming infringement of Samsung patents related to wireless technology. “Where Samsung clearly made a tactical choice in the courtroom was focusing almost all its time on cross-examining Apple witnesses and trying to limit the damage award,” said Mark Lemley, a professor at Stanford Law School. “It left them a lot less time for their affirmative case. . . It’s notable that Samsung’s patents didn’t get any traction at all. It wasn’t signaled to the jury that this was an important part of the case.”
Apple’s sweeping victory in this latest skirmish in the smartphone wars could force larger changes in the industry relating to how basic design elements, according to this story by WSJ’s Jessica E. Vascellaro and Don Clark. Other potential consequences: an uptick in the already substantial volume of patent litigation in the tech sector.