Selection of the jury took until just after 4 p.m. PDT (11:09pm GMT) on Monday. The court had previously agreed to let each company spend up to 1.5 hours each presenting their opening statements and for both to present on the same day, so it became obvious around lunchtime that opening arguments would have to wait until Tuesday.

The jury will hear arguments from Apple that Samsung set out to deliberately copy its iPhone and iPad designs in coming up with competing products. Samsung will argue that its products aren't mere copies of Apple's devices and that some Apple products infringe on technology patents it holds for certain aspects of 3G wireless.

"If you are ultimately selected as a juror, this will be a very interesting case," Judge Lucy Koh of the U.S. District Court in San Jose told potential jurors as Monday's session began.

What she didn't say, but what became clear during the course of the day, was how interesting and varied the potential jurors were themselves.

There was the retired naval cryptologist with a son who drives race cars, the Iranian-born pizza delivery man whose hobbies include Libertarian politics, the engineer with more than 125 patents to his name, and the woman who runs an accredited pre-school, doesn't own a cell phone and doesn't want anything to do with social media.