Apple Marketing Chief Phil Schiller to Testify Again in Upcoming Apple vs. Samsung Case

Apple's Chief of Worldwide Marketing, Phil Schiller, will be among the witnesses that both Apple and Samsung lawyers plan to call to the stand when the two companies return to court in March, reports PCWorld. The second trial will cover newer products that were not able to be included in the first jury trial.

Phil Schiller was first called as a witness during the initial patent dispute between Samsung and Apple in 2012, and again in a damages retrial that took place in November of 2013. Schiller told the jury Samsung made it "much harder" for Apple to market and sell its devices. Samsung made it "harder for us to get new customers and bring them into our ecosystem," he said.


In the second trial, Schiller will be asked to testify on several different aspects of the iPhone, iPad, and iPod, including design, development, and marketing.

"Mr. Schiller will be called to testify regarding design, development, promotion, marketing, advertising, consumer demand for, and sales of the iPhone, iPad, iPod, and other Apple products, including the features accused of infringing the Samsung feature patents, the smartphone and tablet markets, the Apple brand and Apple's marketing and advertising efforts," Samsung said in a filing Thursday with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

Samsung also plans to call Hiroshi Lockheimer, VP of engineering at Google, and Todd Pendleton, Samsung's marketing chief for its U.S. telecoms division. As for Apple, along with Schiller, the company expects to call Tony Blevins, VP of procurement; Gregory Christie, VP of human interface; Bruce Watrous, its chief IP lawyer; and possibly Scott Forstall, Apple's former SVP of iOS software.

Following the conclusion of the initial patent dispute that covered older devices from both Samsung and Apple and the subsequent damages retrial to redetermine a portion of the reward, Samsung was ordered to pay Apple $890 million.

This second trial covers newer devices, such as the Galaxy Note, the Galaxy S III, the Galaxy Tab 10.1, the iPhone 4/4s/5, the iPad 2/3/4, and the iPad mini. As with the former trial, both Apple and Samsung are accusing each other of patent infringement, and laid out a list of asserted patents earlier this month.

Apple CEO Tim Cook and Samsung Electronics CEO Oh-Huyn Kwon are scheduled to attend a mediation meeting ahead of the trial, but if an agreement is not reached, the trial will proceed in March.