The legal battle between Apple and Samsung may have become tiring to some but you can't deny the juiciness of some of the secrets that have been uncovered through internal documents since the two started going at each other. There's no telling how much more we'll see once the big Apple vs. Samsung trial finally gets underway in a San Jose federal court next week, but today has already seen the release of a swath of new documents full of surprises.

The iPhone maker plans to build its case using its Korean rival’s own words against it. An unredacted version of Apple’s trial brief bluntly states that Samsung was well aware that its smartphones and tablets bore a striking resemblance to Apple’s iPhone and iPad and that the issue was one the company discussed internally.

“Samsung’s documents show the similarity of Samsung’s products is no accident or, as Samsung would have it, a ‘natural evolution,’” Apple argues in its brief. “Rather, it results from Samsung’s deliberate plan to free-ride on the iPhone’s and iPad’s extraordinary success by copying their iconic designs and intuitive user interface. Apple will rely on Samsung’s own documents, which tell an unambiguous story.

Among those documents are a few purported to show that Samsung not only deliberately copied certain characteristics of the iPhone and iPad, but was also explicitily warned away from doing so by various third parties, including Google. Below, a sampling of some of Apple’s more compelling points excerpted from its brief.

• In February 2010, Google told Samsung that Samsung’s “P1” and “P3” tablets (Galaxy Tab and Galaxy Tab 10.1) were “too similar” to the iPad and demanded “distinguishable design vis-à-vis the iPad for the P3.”

• In 2011, Samsung’s own Product Design Group noted that it is “regrettable” that the Galaxy S “looks similar” to older iPhone models.

• As part of a formal, Samsung-sponsored evaluation, famous designers warned Samsung that the Galaxy S “looked like it copied the iPhone too much,” and that “innovation is needed.” The designers explained that the appearance of the Galaxy S “[c]losely resembles the iPhone shape so as to have no distinguishable elements,” and “[a]ll you have to do is cover up the Samsung logo and it’s difficult to find anything different from the iPhone.”

The Verge is also reporting that Samsung was so hell bent on beating Apple, they made it their official internal goal for 2012. Earlier documents also reveal that Samsung specifically requested the implementation of iOS features like the bounce effect when reaching the end of a scrolling list.

One of 2011's notes also say that Samsung diverted their attention away from Nokia and towards Apple as they recognized them as their main competitor.

One last and rather damning piece of evidence against Samsung is a document that says that in seven out of the thirty Best Buy stores that Samsung surveyed, the main reason for returning Samsung's tablets was that people bought them thinking they were iPads, thus proving Apple's original point for suing Samsung.

Damning stuff — as presented in this context, anyway. And it will be interesting to see how Samsung’s legal team rebuts it. That said, Samsung does have some ammunition of its own. Specifically, some 2006 internal design presentations that outline a mobile UI similar to the one that ultimately debuted on the iPhone, a handy before-and-after-the-iPhone-handset comparison and some internal Apple emails that it claims suggest “Apple’s ‘revolutionary’ iPhone design was derived from the designs of a competitor — Sony.”

Author: Mutaz Hamid, handelot.com

Source:

http://www.engadget.com/2012/07/26/apple-v-samsung-court-filings-reveal-sony-inspired-iphone-kick/

http://www.theverge.com/2012/7/27/3192614/samsungs-beat-apple-strategy-copying-court-documents

http://www.gsmarena.com/google_had_warned_samsung_from_copying_apples_designs-news-4569.php

http://allthingsd.com/20120725/apple-google-warned-samsung-against-copying-us/