Samsung claims Google developed patents in $2-billion Apple trial

SAN JOSE - The Associated Press

The Apple iPhone 4S (L) is displayed next to the Samsung Galaxy S III at a store. AP Photo

Samsung fired back at Apple’s accusations of patent theft on April 1, saying the South Korean tech giant didn’t write any of the Android software on its smartphones and tablets, Google did.

“Not one of the accused features on this phone was designed, much less copied, by anyone at Samsung,” Samsung attorney Peter Quinn said. “The accused features on this phone were developed independently by some of the software engineers at Google, up the road in Mountain View.”

The finger-pointing took place in U.S. District Court in San Jose, where Apple and Samsung are accusing each other of stealing ideas from each other. At stake: more than $2 billion if Samsung loses, about $6 million if Apple loses.

On opening day, Google - which is not named in the litigation - was clearly a large part of it.

The trial marks the latest round in a long-running, worldwide series of lawsuits between Apple and Samsung over mobile devices.

Quinn told jurors that Apple’s gripe is with Android, a Google-developed smartphone operating system that now makes up about 70 percent of the global market.

Apple’s lawyer Harold McElhinny had anticipated the tactic.

“Don’t be misled by that,” he said in his opening statement. “This case is not about Google. It is Samsung that has made the decision to copy these features, it is Samsung, not Google, that chooses to put these features into their phones, and it is Samsung that has made the decision to keep on infringing on Apple’s patents.”

Apple accuses Samsung of infringing on five patents on newer devices, including Galaxy smartphones and tablets. Specifically, Apple claims Samsung stole a “tap-from-search” technology that allows someone searching for a telephone number or address on the Web to tap on the results to call the number or put the address into a map. In a counterclaim, Samsung says Apple stole two of its ideas and used them for iPhones and iPads.