Judge Lucy Koh presiding at the Apple vs. Samsung trial ruled on Monday that three Samsung smartphones, including GT-i9000, GT-i9100 and Galaxy Ace, must be dropped from the list of devices Apple is accusing of infringing on its technologies. Samsung’s counsel specifically argued against including the three devices in the proceedings, claiming that none of them was up for sale in North America from Samsung or any of its subsidiaries. While GT-i9000 and GT-i9100 are the international Galaxy S and Galaxy S II versions, the Galaxy Ace was brought to the U.S. under the same branding.
Monday’s decision came right after Apple finished its case presentation. The South Korean company successfully argued that its opponent had failed to even adequately explain why the handsets were included in the list of infringing devices in the first place, say nothing of meaningful evidence.
At the same time, Samsung tried to convince the judge to drop the case entirely, arguing that the Cupertino device maker wasn’t persuasive enough in accusing them of trade dress violation. According to All Things D, it took an hour for both parties to state their arguments to Judge Koh.
Earlier that day, Terry Musika, another Apple expert witness, claimed Samsung owes Apple $2.5 billion to $2.75 billion if the jury upholds all of their asserted trade dress allegations. Musika was also cross-examined as to the various ways of calculating damages, as the Asian tech giant attempted to discard the numbers.
Samsung will start its defense wiht Ben Bederson, who will give prior art testimony related to Apple’s “pinch to zoom” patent. Tuting at the University of Maryland, Bederson is credited with desigining an interface dubbed LaunchTile that allows users to more easily operate their smartphone with one hand. As stated in the technology description, LaunchTile relies on thumb gestures with 36 on-screen applications to zoom in and out.
