Apple, Samsung playing games citing big numbers in damages case: experts

Members of the jury in the Apple v Samsung case had heard a lot of big numbers in the past few weeks of which some of the most impressive were those of the expert witnesses, who were asked to disclose how much they were being paid for their work.

According to Andrew Cockburn, computer scientist, the first to disclose his rate, said he was getting  under $500 per hour from Apple. A few days later MIT computer scientist Martin Rinard took the stand, and said Samsung was paying him $950 per hour for his work

However the biggest number being bandied about is Apple's demand for $2.191 billion in damages. Samsung had been arguing for damages of just $6 million and accused Apple of playing psychological games.

''They put that number out there, in your heads, so that is the damages horizon you are thinking of. It's a gross, gross exaggeration and an insult to your intelligence,'' Samsung attorney John Quinn told the jury.

PC World quoted Roy Futterman, director of DOAR Litigation Consulting, a company that analysed trial strategies and tested them with mock juries as saying, it was a highly effective trial strategy for each side to present an alternately high or low anchor damages number in order to increase the range of dollar amounts the jury would consider.

He added, the numbers could not be totally crazy, and each side still needed to make them believable, though, otherwise jurors would reject them offhand.

Meanwhile, Google agreed to take over some of Samsung's defense against patent claims brought by Apple under a secret agreement reached in 2012, a federal court jury heard yesterday.

The revelation came in a video-taped deposition to the eight-person jury hearing the patent infringement case against the Korean firm.

The video showed Google counsel James Maccoun being shown a series of emails between Google and Samsung in which the agreement was negotiated.

In the emails, Google offered to indemnify Samsung against two Apple patents as they related to the Android search box, as also a third Apple patent as it related to Google's Gmail app, according to Maccoun's testimony.

Under the pact Google would assume responsibility for Samsung's defense if Apple brought claims against the company over those patents and while details of the agreement were not disclosed, indemnification typically also involved a party agreeing to cover costs and damages for that part of a trial.