The last time Apple and Samsung met in court over mobile patents, the company that brought us the iPhone won significant damages from its rival.
Now the two are back in court, fighting over software patents, and the case doesn't look as promising for Apple this time, a legal expert says.
"It's hard to know until you see all the relevant pieces, but an initial read of the patents suggests to me that some of them are written at a very broad level," said Mark McKenna, a law professor at Notre Dame. "It would surprise me if they were upheld at that level of generality."
Apple is making some broad claims about what it owns and will have to make a strong case to prove it actually deserves as much as it is asking for, McKenna said.
In the 2012 patent trial Apple won about $1 billion (it was seeking $2.75 billion) in damages from Samsung for infringing its patents, but did not get an injunction against Samsung devices.
This time, Apple is going after about $2 billion in damages, claiming that Samsung copied five of its patents, and is also seeking a sales ban of several Samsung phones, including its Galaxy S III. Samsung is also accusing Apple of infringing two of its patents and is asking for $7 million.
One reason Apple may have a hard time winning as much cash this time is because four of the five patents the company is claiming Samsung infringed upon are related to features in the handsets' software, which is powered byGoogle's Android operating system
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