With* Apple v. Samsung* heading into its last hours, the two companies' CEOs were expected to speak directly on Monday in an attempt to reach a settlement before jurors begin deliberating over a sprawling verdict form for the multifaceted intellectual property case.
Judge Lucy Koh began reading the jury instructions Monday afternoon. Absent a mutual settlement, it would then be up to the jurors to decide who's owed what, and the companies are still scheduled to give their two-hour-long closing arguments on Tuesday. But Bloomberg reported that Apple CEO Tim Cook and his counterpart at Samsung, Kwon Oh Hyun, were going to speak via phone before then to discuss the suit.
If they can't come to an agreement, jurors will begin deliberating on Wednesday, which would mean tackling a 22-page verdict form containing 36 questions jurors will (ideally) need to come to unanimous decisions upon. Much of the questionnaire is in the form of charts, with product names along the Y-axis, patent numbers and specific claims across the top, and cells where jurors can mark if the product is in violation of said patents. Not every mobile product violates every patent on the forms, so in many cases, squares are greyed out.
In other situations, the verdict form asks yes or no questions, such as, "Has Apple proven by clear and convincing evidence that Samsung’s asserted utility patent claims are invalid?"
You can check out the proposed jury form in its entirety on SlideShare below. This morning, each party's lawyers were fighting over last-minute changes to the form and to the 100-plus page jury instructions for completing it.
Today marks the start of the fourth week of Apple v. Samsung. On Friday, Apple and Samsung finished up witness testimony in the trial. Each party had 25 hours to convince jurors of their side of the case.
Samsung and Apple have been duking it out in courtrooms across the globe for more than a year now. Apple claims Samsung is infringing on intellectual property covering the iPhone and iPad's designs, as well as utility patents covering UI features like the “bounce-back” effect when you reach the end of a list. Samsung is claiming Apple is in violation of its essential 3G transmission patent holdings. The case is expected to wrap up by the end of the month.
