Designer says Samsung designs "substantially the same" as Apple's

Apple on Monday brought its first expert witness to the stand in Peter Bressler, who claimed Samsung's designs were "substantially the same" as Apple's, but faltered when cross-examined by the South Korean company's lawyers.

In his testimony Bressler, founder of design firm Bresslergroup, walked the jury through the designs of numerous Samsung smartphones and tablets in an attempt to illustrate their similarities with Apple's asserted patents.

As noted by CNet, Bressler alleged that Samsung infringes on a number of Apple patents.

"My opinion (is) that there are a number of Samsung phones and two Samsung tablets that are substantially the same as the design in those (Apple) patents," Bressler said. He went on to argue the designs are so similar that a consumer could confuse a Samsung product with an Apple device, a theory suggested by a Samsung study of Best Buy customers.

During cross-examination by Samsung lawyer Charles Verhoeven, however, Bressler admitted that he hadn't witnessed customers mistakenly purchase the Galaxy maker's products. The expert was also grilled over the minutiae in design elements between the two companies' devices, and at one point said, "you're asking me to compare peanut butter and turkey." Verhoeven quickly asked which design was which food, to which Bressler replied, "this is a level of detail that the ordinary observer would never be interested in looking at."

Further questioning saw Samsung asserting prior art claims regarding the iPhone's front face which prompted Bressler to note the comparison was an improper analysis of the design patents. He said that all eight illustrations should be used when examining prior art instead of the one view Samsung was comparing against, notes The Verge.

Bressler claims the standard way of looking at patents is to take the design as a whole rather than dissecting it into small parts.

"I believe the ordinary observer should be getting an overall impression of what the design of the phone is," Bressler said. "I don't believe they should be examining teeny details the way you're doing."

Apple v. Samsung will continue on Tuesday with more testimony from Bressler and Apple expert witness Susan Kare, former Creative Director at NeXT and contributor to the first Mac's graphical elements.