In an almost now perennial patent battle between two electronics giants, Apple and Samsung, jury selection is the first small step to signal the formal start of the legal proceedings.Apple and Samsung are the biggest consumer electronics companies in the world and this year’s patent battle put billions of dollars in the balance. Each of them accuse each other of patent violations as they try to control supremacy in the high-profit market of mobile devices around the world.
Apple initiated the fight last year in a California court when it claimed that its rival copied the iPad and iPhone. Samsung fired back of a claim of its own afterwards.
Both companies have big things at stake: Apple’s win could validate the effectiveness of its worldwide patent litigation, while Samsung’s win could mean continued sale of its tablet computers and Galaxy smartphones in the United States.
Apple’s strategy is to convince the court that Samsung knew and intentionally violated Apple’s intellectual property rights. Samsung, on the other hand, argues that Apple is trying to monopolize the market by stifling competition to maintain huge profits from sales.
The jury will be composed of ten members. The team must hear evidence for over at least four weeks before deciding on the fate of the companies. The winner must secure a unanimous decision for it to prevail on any of their claims.
The jurors will be coming from the Silicon Valley area, which would make Samsung more cautious in considering their pick. There is an obvious advantage for Apple in the area because a large number of people works in the Valley and Apple is a huge employer in there.
So far, Apple has seen an early success in its bid to stop Samsung sales as US district judge Lucy Koh banned the sales of the Galaxy Tab 10.1. The ruling was followed by a pretrial ban of the Galaxy Nexus phone. Samsung is in the process of appeal for both.
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