Apple, Samsung trade barbs as new patent trial opens

Lawyers for Apple and Samsung exchanged barbs as a major new patent trial opened and debated the role of a company not even part of the case -- Google.

Apple's legal team vowed to prove that Samsung flagrantly copied iPhone features and should pay more than $2 billion in damages, as the two smartphone giants squared off anew in a California courtroom.

Apple attorney Harold McElhinny opened his presentation with a video showing legendary Apple co-founder Steve Jobs introducing the first iPhone in 2007.

By putting computing power in smartphones powered by fun software and easy to use touch-screens, Apple transformed the market, sending Samsung onto its heels, according to McElhinny.

The attorney told jurors in his opening statement that they would see internal Samsung documents and messages showing that the company felt it was suffering "a crisis of design" with the difference between its devices and the smartphone "a difference between Heaven and Earth."

Apple said evidence will show that the South Korean electronics giant sold more than 37 million infringing smartphones and tablets in the United States.

California-based Apple would have demanded royalties of from $33 to $40 per device to license the patented technology to Samsung, according to McElhinny.

The overall amount being sought by Apple in damages from Samsung will top $2 billion, the lawyer explained.

"This case is not about Google," McElhinny told jurors.

"It is Samsung, not Google, that choses to put these features into its phones."

But Samsung's lawyer told the jurors in the San Jose, California, court, that the case was indeed about Google, and Apple's struggle against the maker of the Android operating system which is now winning in the global marketplace.