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The battle between Apple and Samsung has been going on for months now, and is finally in its last days. That doesn’t mean evidence isn’t still being presented, however, in attempts to sway the case one way or the other. Recently, Samsung brought a principal designer to the stand to testify that the Galaxy Tab 10.1 inch tablet was already in the design stages before Apple had even launched the original iPad.
Jon Soo Kim, the designer, testified through an interpreter that he had already sketched designs for the Galaxy Tab and had sent them to other members of the company days before the iPad was launched. As evidence, he offered up an email thread that took place in between employees on January 6, 2010, some 17 days before iPad pictures began to show up across the Internet and the iPad was announced.
The testimony was meant to rebut Apple’s claims of design infringement. Apple says that Samsung’s Galaxy Tab “looks and feels” like an iPad, and that their design infringes upon a rounded corners and flat glass design that Apple has patented.
Mr. Kim said that there was no other logical way to go with the design of the Galaxy Tab. A curved glass front would make it hard for a touch screen to function properly, and that unrounded corners could potentially harm customers or pierce through bags on long trips.
“The bezel acts like a bumper on a car, it is to protect the device, so really it’s for the user,” Kim said in his statement in court. He also went on to explain that 10.1 inch screens were implemented because that size hit a “sweet spot” with the glass that the company uses for screens; it guaranteed less waste.
“We start with a mother glass, and if you were to increase the display size, or glass to be cut by even 0.1 inch, that instead of 50 glasses from the mother glass you’d end up with 30-35 units only,” Kim continued. When it was Apple’s turn to cross-examine Kim, they pointed out an email thread where Google representatives expressed concern that the new design was too much like the iPad. Kim denied that the supervisors at Google were ever concerned, and that the emails had not been exchanged with him or any piece of his design team.
