Apple’s (AAPL) chief counsel had played the race card, they claimed, when he compared what Samsung was doing to Apple in smartphones to what foreign manufacturers (i.e. Asians) had done to American-made televisions.

On Wednesday, as the jury entered its second day of deliberations, Samsung tried again. The U.S. Patent Office had that very day rejected as insufficient Apple’s response to its earlier rejection of one of the patents at issue in the case, so Samsung filed an emergency motion asking the judge to stop the trial.

“This [Patent Office] decision,” Samsung claimed in a brief, “calls into question the entire jury verdict in this trial.”

FOSS Patent‘s Florian Mueller has Apple’s response. It begins:

Samsung’s strategy to delay entry of final judgment in this case has crossed the bounds of reason: Samsung seeks to halt the damages retrial in the midst of jury deliberations. Granting Samsung’s request would render the Court’s and Apple’s efforts to prepare for and conduct the damages retrial all for naught and be extraordinarily prejudicial to Apple. And there is nothing even resembling good cause for derailing either the jury’s deliberations or post-trial motions.

Judge Lucy Koh rejected the race card motion, and I expect she’ll reject this one too.

Meanwhile, the jury is entering its third day of deliberations. So far they have: 1) asked for calculators and 2) complained about the sourdough bread in their court-supplied sandwiches.

LINKS TO MOTIONS (courtesy of FOSS Patents):

• Samsung Statement of Recent Decision Re. ‘915 Patent
• Apple Opposition to Samsung Emergency Motion for Stay