Jurors began deliberating Wednesday in a multibillion dollar patentinfringement case pitting Apple against Samsung over the design of iPhones andiPads — but few experts were expecting a quick verdict.
After a three-week federal trial in San Jose, a jury of seven men and two womenpicked from a pool of Silicon Valley residents will try to decide if SamsungElectronics Co. ripped off Apple Inc. designs or whether Apple wronged Samsung.
With so much money and market clout at stake, a decision likely won't comeanytime soon, according to jury experts, attorneys and courtroom observers.
"This case has huge implications," said University of Notre Dame LawProfessor Mark P. McKenna. "It could result in injunctions against bothcompanies" involving the sales of products.
It took the judge more than two hours to read the 109 pages of instructions tothe jury. As a verdict is reached, jurors must fill out a 20-page form thatincludes dozens of check-off boxes.
"The verdict form is crazy," said Karen Lisko, who runs a juryconsulting company that specializes in patent trials. "It's incrediblycomplicated."
Jurors have several different smartphones and computer tablets in the jury roomto help them determine which device is alleged to have violated what patent.
Apple argues that Samsung should pay the Cupertino-based company $2.5 billionfor ripping off its iPhone and iPad technology when it marketed competingdevices.
Attorneys for Samsung asked the jury to award it $399 million after claimingApple used Samsung technology without proper compensation.
Lisko said it could take the jury an entire day just to devise a routine andsystem to sift through the facts and began actual deliberations.
"The first day is usually very messy," she said.
It took jurors more than a week to reach a verdict in another major patentcase, Google v. Oracle. That San Francisco panel decided in May that Google didinfringe Oracle's patents related to the Java computer language, but the panelawarded no damages after it couldn't come to a unanimous agreement on severalother points.
During closing arguments Tuesday, Apple attorney Harold McElhinny said Samsungwas having a "crisis of design" after the launch of the iPhone, andexecutives with the South Korean company were determined to illegally cash inon the success of the revolutionary device.
Samsung's lawyer countered that the technology giant was simply and legallygiving consumers what they want: Smart phones with big screens. They say theydidn't violate any of Apple's patents and further claimed that Apple's claimedinnovations were actually created by other companies.
The case went to the jury after last-minute talks between chief executivesfailed to resolve the dispute.