Apple's trial experts are 'slavish fanbois who believe in magic'

Samsung has asked a Californian court to dismiss seven of Apple's expert witnesses in a patent case - and claimed their "slavish" love for the Foxconn-rebrander means they are unable to give useful testimony.

In a Motion to Exclude Opinions of Certain of Apple's Experts, the South Korean giant's lawyers described the Apple pundits as hopelessly prejudiced fanbois who could only recite platitudes about "magical and revolutionary" products and had no relevant information to give the San Jose court.

The document claims:

They have cast aside established scientific methods and governing legal principles in favour of slavish adoration of their client and platitudes about its alleged magical and revolutionary products, issues that are of no relevance to the claims and defences at issue.

Consequently, they should all be dismissed, the lawyers argued to Judge Lucy Koh:

The testimony that Apple seeks to elicit from these experts is not relevant to any issue in this matter, and is otherwise incorrect, and unhelpful.

The experts Samsung objects to include Susan Kare - who designed the user interface, icons and fonts for the original Macs in the 1980s - and Henry Urbach, who comes in for particular criticism for using "flowery" language about Apple and "being unquestionably a loyal devotee of Apple, its designers, its products and its retail stores".

The other experts Samsung want kicked out are Terry L. Musika, Russell Winer, Dr Sanjay Sood, Dr John Hauser, Michael Walker, and part of Richard L. Donaldson's testimony.

Apple have in turn sought to exclude the opinions of eight Samsung experts. Both sides have streamlined their cases, dropping some claims and rebutting counter claims before the patent battle lands before a jury on 21 June. ®