Samsung Claims iPhone’s Design Was Inspired By Sony Product

Apple and Samsung's trial kicks off in a federal district court in San Jose, California on Monday.

As we reported earlier, Apple has filed a document as a part of its briefing for the trial in which it makes arguments in favor of its "Samsung copied Apple stance" using statements made by both, Samsung and Google.



AllThingsD points us to the trial document filed by Samsung in which the company claims that Apple’s inspiration for the original iPhone CAD drawings and designs were inspired by a Sony product:

Right after this article was circulated internally, Apple industrial designer Shin Nishibori was directed to prepare a “Sony-like” design for an Apple phone and then had CAD drawings and a three-dimensional model prepared. Confirming the origin of the design, these internal Apple CAD drawings prepared at Mr. Nishibori‘s direction even had the “Sony” name prominently emblazoned on the phone design, as the below images from Apple‘s internal documents show.

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Soon afterward, on March 8, 2006, Apple designer Richard Howarth reported that, in contrast to another internal design that was then under consideration, Mr. Nishibori‘s “Sony-style” design enabled “a much smaller-looking product with a much nicer shape to have next to your ear and in your pocket” and had greater “size and shape/comfort benefits.” As Mr. Nishibori has confirmed in deposition testimony, this “Sony-style” design he prepared changed the course of the project that yielded the final iPhone design.

The article referenced in the trial document filed by Samsung  is from a 2006 interview with Sony product designers Takashi Ashida and Yujin Morisawa that appeared in Businessweek.