Samsung product development chief on Apple patent trial: ‘consumers want rectangles’

Apple vs. Samsung is going to trial today in California — we’ve broken it all down here — but Wired has sat down with Samsung’s Senior Vice President of Product Development and Marketing Kevin Packingham to get a bit more on the Korean company’s side of the story. We’ve heard it all before, but what’s clear from the interview is that Samsung strongly feels that Apple’s patents are too broad, specifically saying that “it’s unreasonable that we’re fighting over rectangles.” Packingham continues on to discount the validity of a design patent on a rectangle, saying that Samsung only patents unique intellectual property: “Some of our products happen to be in the shape of a rectangle, but I wouldn’t consider that to be an art or a science that we’ve created.” Additionally, the VP says that companies should have a “healthy dialogue about how we’re going to advance technology” — not “how we’re going to isolate our companies and prevent innovation from entering the marketplace.” We’ll just have to wait and see who the jury agrees with.