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Android engineer: We didn't copy Apple or follow Samsung's orders

Veep testifies for Samsung during Apple patent trial

Samsung brought in heavyweight champion Google to fight in its corner in its latest patent bout with Apple in the US on Friday.

In the latest instalment of the ongoing patent wars, current veep of engineering for Android, Hiroshi Lockheimer, testified that Android was all Google's idea.

Much as Apple engineers did in their testimony earlier in the week, Lockheimer described how hard a small bunch of engineers and devs worked to build Android, outlining a "gruelling" schedule of 60- to 80-hour working weeks.

"We'd work really late at work ... all hours," he said, according to The Verge.

He said the team had grown from fewer than 30 employees to the 600 to 700 workers it has today. Lockheimer denied that Google had copied anything from the iPhone for the operating system.

"We like to have our own identity. We like to have our own ideas," the Wall Street Journal reported him as saying.

He also testified that Samsung didn't partner with Google on Android, saying there were times when Sammy asked for changes and Mountain View refused to implement them.

Samsung is trying to defend against the software patent infringement case by saying that the technology in question comes from Google and Google developed it all by itself. Apple says it's not suing Google and it was Samsung that chose to copy the iPhone with its popular Galaxy line of devices.

The fruity firm is looking for a huge amount of money in damages, up to $2.2bn, a number that Samsung lawyers have called a "gross, gross exaggeration".

Apple wrapped up its arguments on Friday with its damages expert Christopher Vellturo. The economist said that by his analysis, the alleged infringement of the five patents in the case had cost Apple $1.07bn in lost profits and it deserved the other $1.12bn as a "reasonable royalty". ®

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