Apple Has Experts Explain Its $2.2 Billion Damages Claim Against Samsung
Apple brought an expert economist to court on Tuesday in order to explain and defend its $2.2 billion damages claim against Samsung.
Dr. Chris Vellturo, an economist and Ph.D. graduate of MIT, told the jury that Apple’s claim centers around five key patents which were infringed between August 2011 and the end of 2013, according to Re/code.
The publication explains that in the economist’s opinion, “the damages are a mix of Apple’s lost profits during the time as well as a reasonable royalty for Samsung’s use of Apple’s technology on the remainder of the more than 37 million phones and tablets that are accused of infringing Apple patents.”
He said:
It’s a very large market and Samsung has made a lot of sales into that market. (…) It’s a particularly significant period for Samsung to have been infringing.
Explaining, as Re/code notes, that “one’s first smartphone purchase is a key determining factor in future phone and tablet purchases,” Vellturo added that he and his firm have spent thousands of hours studying the five infringed patents and the 2011–2013 smartphone market; personally, the economist has spent more than 800 hours examining the case.
The news came after another expert, MIT professor John Hauser, presented the results of a “conjoint survey” which attempted to demonstrate how much extra Samsung customers paid for the five infringed patents. Re/code notes in a separate report that the five patents were shown to be “highly valuable” by Hauser.
Despite this, Samsung is continuing to call Apple’s $2.2 billion damages claim a “gross exaggeration.”
In related news, at the beginning of the month Apple senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing Phil Schiller took to the stand, and before this, both Apple and Samsung drew up a list of infringed patents and products.
The trial continues and is expected to close at the end of April. We’ll keep you updated with further information as we receive it.
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