Famous Mac designer Susan Kare has admitted to the court that she was once fooled by a Samsung phone into thinking it was an Apple product.

The revelation comes from Kare as she took the stand in the ongoing trial between Apple and Samsung in California.

Kare worked on the original Macintosh computer and is most famous for designing the “Happy Mac” graphic, the graphic original Mac users saw when they booted the computer.

She worked at Apple from 1982 to 1986 as a “Macintosh Artist” at the company’s Macintosh Software Group.

According to Kare, she once mistook a Samsung smartphone as an Apple iPhone. This allegedly happened when she was at one of Apple’s law firms and she was participating as an expert witness in a discussion analyzing their case.

In the court, she said that Apple’s iPhones and Samsung’s smartphones are confusing because of their similarities.

When asked why users might be confused, she said [emphasis added]:

“It is my opinion that the overall collection of graphic features that makes the overall visual impression could be confusing for a consumer. Partly I base that on my visual analysis. Partly, I remember when I was at the law firm about being a expert witness in this case there was a big conference table with many phones on it… I could see the screen and went to pick up the iPhone to make a point about the UI graphics, and I was holding a Samsung phone. I usually think of myself as someone who is pretty granular about looking at graphics, and I mistook one for the other. So, I guess in addition to my formal analysis I had the experience of being confused.”

Apple has a patent on the design of the iPhone screen. It filed for this patent in 2007 and got it two years later.

“The overall visual impression on all of these screens — compared each one by one — compared to the screenshot from the iPhone 3G, were confusingly similar,” Kare told the court.

As defense, Samsung did a live demonstration of one of its smartphones booting up.

The Samsung smartphone had clear Samsung branding on the front of the device and showed the Samsung logo, a Droid opening video complete with sound and a two-step procedure to be completed by the user before the home screen – which Apple argues is confusingly similar to the iPhone – is reached.

Apple had argued previously in the proceedings that some buyers of Samsung tablets from Best Buy returned their devices because they thought they bought an iPad 2.

Images 1 & 2 from Br3nda & Kai Hendry on Flickr (CC)

About Solon Harmony Dolor

A passion for technology and journalism makes this upcoming writer very interested in social media and technology news. Fresh from finishing an English and Journalism degree from the University of the Philippines Diliman, he aims to bring interesting news to our readers .