Another round of patent battles kicks off between Samsung Electronics and Apple, surrounding the Apple Tax this time.
The U.S. District Court of the Northern District of California will select the jury on March 31 (local time) before deliberating on the case in earnest. The suit at this time surrounds software, like a user interface. In this vein, experts are predicting that the litigation will end up being between the Android alliance and Apple.
Samsung Electronics utilizes only two patents down the road, that is, those of digital image and sound recording, and transfer and remote image transfer. Meanwhile, Apple comes up with five patents – automatic word completion, slide to unlock, data synchronization between PC and smartphone, data tapping, and and integrated search. Google’s reference phone, the Galaxy Nexus is subject to the litigation, too.
Both Samsung Electronics and Apple have asked Google’s Android OS developers to be summoned as witnesses. Specifically, Samsung’s witnesses include Vice President of Engineering Hiroshi Lockheimer, and developers like Gary Clark and Dianne Hackborn.
Industry insiders are predicting that the damages for the second case will be greater than those for the previous case. Earlier, during arbitration by a competent judge, Apple had demanded that Samsung Electronics pay US$40 in patent fees for each smartphone and tablet PC it has sold.
The current lawsuit can be compared to a thermonuclear war declared by Apple, which is turning itself into a patent troll, against the Android alliance. Apple winning the case is likely to result in the imposition of the Apple Tax on consumers in the end. The Apple Tax can be defined as the shifting of the increased smartphone prices from manufacturers to consumers for the former to avoid high patent royalties.