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Samsung: 'You want $2.5bn? WRONG, Apple, you OWE us $420m!'

iFruit biz 'overstated' damages bill in patent trial

An accountant on the stand for Samsung in its epic patent trial has said Apple overstated Sammy's mobile gadget margins, effectively inflating a potential payout for the iPhone maker.

Michael Wagner claimed that, if the jury finds against Samsung, its US profits from April 2011 should be taken into account for damages and that Apple would get only around 12 per cent or $519m in that case, Reuters reports.

Apple's expert Terry Musika testified earlier in the trial that Samsung's US profits of $8.16bn, totted up from mid-2010 to March 2012, were boosted by products that allegedly infringed Apple's designs, adding that Cupertino was owed 35.5 per cent of that money: $2.5bn.

But Wagner, appearing in the San Jose, California court yesterday, claimed that Apple hasn't taken into account many of Samsung's costs, including marketing.

Another two of Samsung's financial experts also said on the day that it should actually be Apple that owes money for violating Samsung's patents, and that figure should come up to $421.8m.

Sammy is fighting allegations that it ripped off Apple's designs for its own smartphones.

As the trial winds its way to a close, more details about the secret life of Apple came out in testimony from Sammy expert Vince O'Brien, who said the fruity firm has paid about $1.4bn in patent royalties to at least 90 different companies. The other financial expert David Teece said that the fruity firm sold $12.23bn worth of iPhones in the States since September 2010 and $2.29bn of iPads since the end of April 2011.

Teece also said that Samsung's patents in the case were worth up to $399m, but he admitted after questioning from Apple that he hadn't seen any evidence that the firm was getting royalties for those patents from other companies.

Judge Koh has already advised the pair of warring firms to think about coming to their own settlement rather than leaving things to the hands of the jury, who will start deliberating next week.

Juries in patent trials can have a hard time figuring out the complicated intellectual property law and assessing damages, so Samsung is doing a good job of hedging its bets here by leaving a low number in the minds of jurors as they head off to decide the tech firms' fates. ®

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