We polled five people with specialist knowledge of the legal system, patent litigation and trials, and the U.S. smartphone market to get their opinions on the trial so far.

They were: Mark McKenna, a Notre Dame University law professor who specializes in intellectual property, trademark and copyright law; Christopher Carani, a shareholder at McAndrews, Held & Malloy who specializes in design patents and is the current chairman of the American Bar Association's Design Rights Committee; Roy Futterman, director at DOAR Litigation Consulting and a clinical psychologist who provides jury analysis and recommendations for civil and criminal cases; Bill Panagos, a shareholder at Butzel Long who specializes in intellectual property, patent prosecution and litigation, trademark and copyright law; and Charles Golvin, principal analyst at Forrester Research.

Here are some of their responses:

Roy Futterman: I am surprised that the attorneys and the judge have allowed the jury's job to be staggeringly complicated by providing them with an elaborate verdict form and remarkably long jury instructions. In our experience working on complex patent litigation, we always advise attorneys to do everything possible to clarify the complex legal and technological issues for the jurors as a means to a favorable verdict. A simpler case with a clear verdict form would be most favorable to Apple as the plaintiff charging infringement. A complicated verdict form may lead an overwhelmed jury to check a box that leads to an invalid patent.