A federal judge on Friday weakened the blow from Apple’s legal
victory in a patent case against Samsung, lopping more than 40 percent off the
damages a jury awarded last year.
It was a mostly symbolic setback
for Apple, one that did not shift the case — one of the most closely watched in
the technology industry — in Samsung’s favor. While Apple has lost other
skirmishes against Samsung in courts around the world, the jury award in the
United States case has been the biggest victory for either side so far. Even at
a reduced level, it would be among the highest damage awards in a patent
dispute.
The judge ordered a new trial to
recalculate a portion of those damages, leaving open the possibility that some
of them could be restored. She also indicated that Apple is entitled to
additional damages for sales of Samsung products that have occurred since the
jury’s decision last summer, which could further swell the amount Apple is owed
by Samsung.
In her review of the jury’s
decisions, which originally awarded Apple more than $1 billion for
patent violations by Samsung in its mobile products, Judge Lucy Koh of the
United States District Court in San Jose, Calif., knocked those damages down by
$450 million, to $599 million. The new trial will determine how much of the
$450 million, if any, should be restored.
“It will be years before the
parties exhaust all of their litigation avenues and options,” said Alan Fisch,
an intellectual property lawyer with Fisch Hoffman Sigler in Washington, DC.
“Still, some form of patent cross-license between the two would not be an
unsurprising final result.”
None of Judge Koh’s opinion
changed the jury’s finding that Samsung violated a series of Apple patents in
its smartphone and tablet products. But the judge took issue with the way the
jury calculated the damages from the Samsung devices named in the case, more
than two dozen in all. In her 27-page opinion, Judge Koh said the jury failed
to follow her instructions in calculating damages for a certain class of
patents, known as utility patents.
She also decided in Samsung’s
favor in a dispute between the two parties over when Apple notified Samsung
that it was infringing Apple’s intellectual property. Evidence of such notice
dates are important because they help determine how hefty the damages are in a
court case, once the party being notified is found guilty of infringement.
Judge Koh chided Apple for using an expert in the case who used an “aggressive
notice date” — meaning, an early one — to calculate damages.
“The need for a new trial could
have been avoided had Apple chosen a more circumspect strategy or provided more
evidence to allow the jury or the court to determine the appropriate award for
a shorter notice period,” she said in her ruling.
Steve Dowling, a spokesman for
Apple, declined to comment. Representatives of Samsung didn’t respond to
requests for comment.
Apple and Samsung, meanwhile,
continue to fight ferociously in the smartphone market, where Samsung has
steadily worked its way to the No. 1 position over the last few years. In the
fourth quarter, Samsung accounted for 29 percent of global smartphone
shipments, while Apple accounted for 21.8 percent, according to IDC.
Mark A. Lemley, a professor at
Stanford Law School, called the judge’s decision “an extremely careful and
thorough opinion on a very difficult and interrelated set of issues.” (Mr.
Lemley has done past legal work for Google, which makes the Android operating
system used by Samsung in most of its mobile products.)
Mr. Lemley predicted that Samsung
would wind up with some reduction in the original $1 billion award, but “almost
certainly” less than the $450 million that Judge Koh reduced it by on Friday.
“We’ll
need a new trial to figure that out,” he said. “Judge Koh has encouraged both
sides to appeal first. That may clarify some questions, but it is unlikely to
prevent a new trial, just delay it some.”
No comments:
Post a Comment