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August 01, 2012

What Does a Jury of Your Peers Look Like in the Apple vs. Samsung Patent Wars?

We are now at the stage of jury selection for the patent infringement trials. The question now is who is going to want who on the jury and what are the implications for a fair trial?

First of all, let’s admit that Steve Jobs was a genius and through his will of personality changed several industries. Admitting that also has to include his strength of personality has name recognition around the world.

In contrast, Samsung is not exactly known for developing personalities. Like many Asian companies its goal is to succeed in production and personalities are not normally encouraged. 

But in a patent trial the goal is to get beyond the technology and to tell a good story about how the company developed its products.   This is going to be a problem for Samsung since its orientation is not to see itself as one whole company but several lines of business. Apple looks like a cohesive whole in your home entertainment while Samsung is just as likely to be your TV and your clothes washer/dryer.

So the story that Apple can tell is in keeping up with its image of being a bottom’s up company that just wanted to make the world a better place.  Most people, I know, look at the smartphone as starting with the iPhone, and if I showed them anything different then it’s like Norman from Star Trek (1 Mudd Episode), “Illogical Please explain.” 

But explaining is going to be hard to do for both sides. Apple is going to have to show how its previous supplier for flash memory can know the business needs of the components, but not the consumer’s requirements.

Samsung is going to have to debunk the pastoral magical mystery of the Apple “It just works” cohesion and show it for what it is; a company

In jury selection, I am sure that now one from telecom would be chosen by Apple and no one from the Internet would be chosen by Samsung.

Anyone with telecom history would know that rounded edges were selected for push buttons back at the beginning of divestiture (1982) by real ergomonic research (some from Nortel – hey maybe those patents were worth it). And anyone from the Internet would probably discount the progress made by Andy Rubin with Danger Software and the WAP generation of app developers. 

So the peers will be an interesting mix of people experiencing the revolution in a personal way. If owning a smartphone is a cause for dismissal, it’s going to be a jury of laggards or luddites. 

Ignoring the fact that Xerox should probably own Apple, let’s just accept the fact that it’s going to be a hard battle for Samsung to win, which in turn will hurt the rest of the Android industry. 

Strangely it may be that Microsoft is going to reemerge from this battle in a much stronger position. 


Want to learn more about today’s powerful mobile Internet ecosystem? Then be sure to attend the Mobility Tech Conference & Expo, collocated with ITEXPO West 2012 taking place Oct. 2-5 2012, in Austin, TX. Co-sponsored by TMC Partner Crossfire Media the Mobility Tech Conference & Expo provides unmatched networking opportunities and a robust conference program representing the mobile ecosystem. The conference not only brings together the best and brightest in the wireless industry, it actually spans the communications and technology industry. For more information on registering for the Mobility Tech Conference & Expo click here.

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Edited by Stefanie Mosca


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