Apple presented documents it said were evidence that Samsung set out to copy its successful products, including a translation of an analysis of the iPhone with the note, "HW portion: Easy to copy," with "HW" referring to hardware. Samsung documents also referred to a "crisis of design" as mobile operators demanded the vendor make handsets like the iPhone, McElhinny said.

Samsung has made a long series of products that infringe Apple's patents, including the Galaxy S II phone and Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet, selling 22.7 million units of infringing products and rolling in a profit of more than $2 billion on them, Apple said. Consumers confuse those products with Apple's, and their sales have eaten into Apple's own business, McElhinny said.

Samsung's lead attorney, Charles Verhoeven of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, acknowledged Samsung engineers had been "inspired" by the iPhone and iPad but said that was business as usual in the electronics industry -- and claimed Apple did the same when it created its own designs.

"Being inspired by a good product and seeking to make even better products ... is called competition. It's not copying, it's not infringement," Verhoeven said.

Samsung will argue that Apple's patents are invalid, partly by showing earlier products and design patents that used elements Apple is claiming as unique, Verhoeven said.