One Samsung Tactic is to Discredit Phil Schiller's Testimony
Samsung is attempting to change their patent infringement trial tactics from the last patent infringement trial that they lost. One tactic is Samsung's attorney Peter Quin stating in court that "not one of the accused features on this phone was designed, much less copied, by anyone at Samsung. The accused features on this phone were developed independently by some of the software engineers at Google, up the road in Mountain View." Samsung is basically saying that Apple should be suing Google, not them. Secondly, Samsung is out to paint Apple's VP of Worldwide Marketing Phil Schiller as a panicky marketing executive in the hopes of discrediting Phil Schiller's upcoming testimony.
Key Points Made by Phil Schiller in his 2013 Testimony
CNET's coverage of Phil Schiller's testimony in-part in the 2013 retrial they noted Schiller stating that "Apple's marketing would have had even more success if Samsung hadn't released similar products.
'This was an incredibly important time,' he said. 'As this [infringement] has been occurring, it's harder for us to get new customers and bring them into our ecosystem.'
He added that Apple's marketing strategy revolves around 'the product as the hero,' highlighting features and capabilities that differentiate its devices from all others on the market. But Samsung's devices caused consumers to "question our design skills in a way they never used to,' Schiller said.
Schiller added later during his testimony that copying one feature is as damaging to Apple as copying 50. He noted that creating designs and features that differentiate the company is Apple's entire business.
'At the end of the day, there's a cumulative effect of doing all of this that's incredibly damaging,' Schiller said.'
Samsung gained huge market share in smartphones because it copied Apple, Schiller added. That's also why Samsung flourished while other Android makers such as Motorola floundered, he said."'
Samsung Attempting to Discredit Phil Schiller
With Phil Schiller due to testify in Apple's current patent infringement trial, Samsung is on the offensive trying to taint Schiller's testimony as nothing more than a marketing executive in panic mode.
Samsung's lawyer John Quinn, told the court, "We will show you internal Apple documents, documents that haven't been made public before, and showed how Apple was really concerned about competition from Android, and in particular Samsung. This new, edgy marketing strategy … it drove Apple crazy." The context was reportedly the Samsung ad titled the "The Next Big Thing."
Reportedly "Quinn brought out an internal email from Schiller to his team that highlighted a story from The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) last January entitled 'Has Apple lost its cool to Samsung?' Schiller's one-line email said simply 'We have a lot of work to do to turn this around.' According to Quinn, Schiller became obsessed with the campaign."
Did Schiller really become "obsessed" over Samsung's ad campaign or is this just typical Samsung attorney theatrics? Of course it's Samsung's attorney's duty to try to impute the testimony of those that they fear the jury will listen to closely. So we'll see if these "internal Apple documents" actually prove anything.
Apple will forge ahead about "patent infringement" specifics while Samsung will continually shift tactics to distract the jury with entertaining theories and excuses that it's all Google's fault. Expect more of this as the trial progresses.
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