Apple Inc.(NASDAQ:AAPL) and Samsung will face
each one again in the San Jose courtroom on Thursday. The courtroom is the same
place where they waged a patent infringement battle against each other and
Apple got $1.05 billion as damages. The patents in question were related to
similarities between the designs and on-screen icons on a number of Samsung
cell phones and Apple's iPhone. The jury gave the verdict in favor of Apple,
declaring that Samsung had indeed copied features of the iPhone into their own
products.
Samsung has appealed to Judge Lucy Koh that the
trial should begin afresh. Lawyers will naturally argue about the fact that
jury foreman Velvin Hogan should have revealed that he had witnessed a lawsuit
against tech company Seagate in 1993, during the jury selection process. Hogan
defended himself by saying that he was clearly instructed to disclose cases
over the last decade only.
Since Samsung owns just under 10 percent of
Seagate after it sold its hard-disk drive division to the company last year for
$1.4 billion, they claim that Hogan’s withholding the information about the
Seagate case raises issues of bias that Samsung should have been allowed to
explore during the questioning.
Apple has recently entered into a patent
licensing deal with HTC and they have to reveal the patents coming under that
agreement, in court. Many are expecting Apple to make a demand for damages to
be increased to the original amount they were asking for- $2.75 billion. But
the judge can multiply the current damages amount thrice as the jury has found
the infringement by Samsung to be “willful”.
Koh might choose to ban certain products of
Samsung too, which are in violation of certain Apple patents. Previously, Koh
has set rigid rules on the post trial motions and supporting documents that
each side could file, which the lawyers hadn’t taken note of. They submitted
bulky documents, as a result of which, Koh declared the court will strike from
the record all of the material submitted in violation of the Court's Order.
Lawyers from both sides have time till Friday to re-submit documents.
Let Apple's Bulling continue (trying to put an end to Android - Monopoly)...
ReplyDeleteExpect another biased jury. After all the courthouse is just down the street from Apple headquarters. Everywhere else in the world this same case was basically thrown out.
I really hope these ridiculous patent lawsuits end soon. Enough is enough already!!!!!!!!!!
Focus on making products!!!! Let the consumer decide what they like. END OF STORY!!!!!