Apple looked to Sony for iPhone design inspiration, court documents show

Apple looked in part to Sony for inspiration in designing its first iPhone, even having an internal designer produce "Sony-like" mock-ups of cell phones that carried the name of the Japanese electronics company, according to internal Apple documents submitted to a federal court in California on Wednesday.

The documents were filed to the U.S. District Court in San Jose by lawyers for Samsung as part of an ongoing lawsuit with Apple over patent infringement. After months of in-court discussion and fighting, the two sides are scheduled to begin arguing their case in front of a jury on Monday.

A big part of the case revolves around allegations that some of Samsung's cell phones and tablet computers are too closely styled after Apple's products. With the recently filed documents, Samsung appears to be preparing to argue that Apple looked to other companies in designing its first cell phone and that such a practice is common in the consumer electronics marketplace. Read more...