Apple and LG Electronics are heading to court over claims by an Alcatel-Lucent SA unit that the companies infringed patents for electronic devices including phones and computers, reports "Bloomberg Businessweek" (http://macte.ch/k4yJZ).

The jury trial, which starts today in federal court in San Diego, stems from a 2010 lawsuit by the Paris-based company’s Multimedia Patent Trust accusing Apple and LG Electronics of copying video-compression technology that allows data to be sent more efficiently over communications media, including the Internet and satellites, or stored on DVDs and Blu-ray discs, the article adds.

The Alcatle-Lucent SA unit claims its patents are infringed by products including the iPhone, iPod, iPad and MacBook. The unit wants a "reasonable royalty" based on what it would have been paid if a licensing agreement had been reached before the infringements began, according to "Bloomberg Businessweek."