Apple and Samsung lawyers addressed the jury for the first time today in their landmark patent case, with Apple arguing that its "magical" designs deserve protection and Samsung countering that it is also an innovator.

Before Apple and Samsung presented their opening arguments, however, Judge Lucy Koh agreed to exclude some of Samsung's evidence. That includes references to Sony and Samsung's independent creation.

"The Judge's exclusion of evidence on independent creation meant that even though Apple was allowed to inaccurately argue to the jury that the F700 was an iPhone copy, Samsung was not allowed to tell the jury the full story and show the pre-iPhone design for that and other phones that were in development at Samsung in 2006, before the iPhone," a Samsung spokesman said in a statement. "The excluded evidence would have established beyond doubt that Samsung did not copy the iPhone design. Fundamental fairness requires that the jury decide the case based on all the evidence."

Samsung is also not allowed to bring up a reference that Shin Nishibori, an Apple design inventor, made regarding Sony's influence on the iPhone. In a deposition, Nishibori referred to a conversation he had with Apple's design chief, Jonathan Ive, in which Ive reportedly asked Nishibori what a Sony-made iPhone would look like.

Tim Bradshaw, a reporter with the Financial Times, was in the courtroom today and live tweeted much of the day-long proceedings. On the Apple front, Bradshaw reported that Apple speak is not limited to the company's press events, with Cupertino attorneys arguing that the iPhone "changed phones forever," and speculating that it was hard to remember what phones looked like before the iPhone. Still, Bradshaw said Apple was "pretty methodical" in its opening, with "no bombast."