Computer scientists come to Samsung’s aid in patent trial

In the ongoing Apple v. Samsung patent trial on Tuesday, Samsung continued its defense against by calling on a cavalcade of computer science experts who testified that Apple’s patents were not novel, should not have been granted or did not apply to alleged infringing products. Samsung’s day in court was filled with highly technical testimony as counsel used the time to bolster a defense that Apple’s five patents-in-suit are not colorably different from prior art, irrelevant and not worth $2.19 billion in damages.

Samsung didn’t infringe on Apple’s patents for quick links, universal search, slide-to-unlock, and autocorrect, several expert witnesses hired by the Korean giant testified Tuesday. Kevin Jeffay, professor of computer science at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, said that Apple’s ‘647 quick-links patent is more limited than the company claims. The technology allows for the automatic detection of data that can be clicked, such as a phone number being sent to a dialer rather than having to memorize or copy and past the number. Apple’s patent involves the use of an “analyzer server” to perform the action. Samsung devices, however, don’t use an analyzer server for the browser and message, Jeffay said, and detecting and linking in Samsung devices are performed by the application itself. In addition, theAndroid Jelly Bean browser doesn’t enable selection of detected text, he said. “In my opinion, they do not infringe,” Jeffay said.