As the courtroom battle between Samsung and Apple to entered its final rounds, Samsung mounted an attack on Apple by arguing several iOS UI features being contested were developed long before the iPhone came along.
According to Apple's argument, the 2007 iPhone was the first to introduce features such as the pinch-to-zoom and double tap to enlarge gestures.
Yesterday, Samsung showed the jury several examples detailing the exact same functions long before the iPhone. The earliest of which, was the DiamondTouch device developed a whopping six years before the iPhone was revealed.
Developed in 2001 from the Mitsubishi Electronic Research Laboratory (MERL), the device is still available in the lounge for anybody to use. Samsung showed the court a DiamondTouch feature called Fractal Zoom, which allowed users to zoom in and out of photos using multiple finger gestures.
In addition, Samsung even revealed Apple's staff was given a demonstration of the DiamondTouch device back in 2003. Although Samsung's arguments focused on the fact that Apple saw the DiamondTouch before patenting and creating the pinch-to-zoom feature, further cross examination revealed many of the DiamondTouch features came in later on in the life of the device.
Hoping to challenge another one of Apple's patents in question, Samsung brought up the LaunchTile system created by Benjamin Bederson. Developed in 2004, the system was a tile-based UI for mobile devices that allowed users to navigate through tiles by swiping back and forth. Demonstrated on an HP iPAQ , swiping back and forth between screens showed a "snap-back" feature, where the screen snaps back into place if a certain threshold isn't reached. Samsung argues this effect is identical to Apple's patented "bounce-back" feature.
Challenging Apple's patents certainly won't be enough to win the trial, but if Samsung is able to have the jury's question Apple's originality to a few of the features it's accusing Samsung of copying, perhaps the company can swing the verdict in their favor.
