Samsung expert says Apple should only get $38M for patent infringement, not $2B

money

The court battle between Apple and Samsung raged on in California today, with Samsung calling a damages expert to the stand. Judith Chevalier, a professor of economics at the Yale University School of Management, testified that if found guilty of infringement, Samsung should only have to pay Apple $38 million.

The figure, which is actually $38.4 million, is miles away from the $2.2 billion number that Apple’s damages expert called for last week. Chevalier argued that a reasonable royalty rate for Apple’s patents would’ve been $0.35 per patent, per device, and doesn’t think the company should receive damages for lost sales…

CNET’s Shara Tibken has more:

“My analysis compensates Apple through a reasonable royalty and…I have determined Apple has not lost sales as a result of Samsung’s practice of the patents,” Chevalier said.

Chevalier said that Apple’s experts argued the Cupertino, Calif., company’s five patents were major demand drivers for Samsung devices. However, all the devices at issue in the case generated different amounts of profits despite the fact that nearly all of them are accused of infringing all five of Apple’s patents, she said.

“We have to conclude that the differences in profitability across these products is being driven by something else other than the practice of these patents,” Chevalier said. “The value created by these products is really negligible.”

In sharp contrast to Chevalier’s testimony, Apple’s expert argued last week that Samsung would have paid an average of $40 per device for the use of its 5 software patents. And in court today, the company’s Bill Lee asked the professor how she could have come to the conclusion that Apple didn’t deserve any lost profits.

In all, Apple is asserting 5 patents against several mobile Samsung products running Google’s Android OS. Samsung, for its part, continues to argue that Apple’s estimated damages for infringement is a ‘gross exaggeration’ of their actual worth, and it’s also countersuing the Cupertino firm for infringing on 2 of its own patents.

Samsung rested its defense case today following Chevalier’s testimony.