The jury foreman in the most recent Apple v. Samsung patent trial has some friendly advice for Apple: Sue Google, not the Android handset makers like Samsung.
If you really feel that Google is the cause behind this, as I think everybody has observed, then don’t beat around the bush,” said Tom Dunham, whose job at IBM was to oversee developers expected to file patents. “Let the courts decide. But a more direct approach may be something to think about” …
It has long been suggested that Apple may be using Samsung as a proxy target for its patent charges, while the real aim was to hurt Android as a whole. Of the five patents in question, only one – Slide to Unlock – was Samsung-specific, the others were a part of Android.
Samsung did indeed use the “some other dude did it” (SODDI) defense in the trial, saying if anyone had infringed Apple’s patents, it was Google. That argument was given credence when it was found that Google offered to pay some or all of Samsung’s costs if it lost the case.
