A few weeks ago, it was reported that Samsung was willing to pay Apple US$548 million (about RM2.5 billion) for infringing Apple’s patents and designs. However, Apple recently filed papers in court, claiming that its rival owes an additional US$180 million (about RM772 million) in supplemental damages and interest. According to a declaration by expert Julie Davis, the damages are for infringements after the cutoff date of the jury trial.
This patent war between the two giant companies is still ongoing since 2011, and it all started with Apple accusing Samsung for infringing its patents in terms of mobile devices, as well as filing patent infringement suits against the South Korean company. At the end of the trial, the jury found Samsung guilty and recommended that it should pay Apple US$1 billion (about RM4.3 billion) in damages, although the payment amount was later reduced.
In 2014, Samsung was yet involved in another patent case with Apple. Similar to the last trial, the South Korean company was found guilty again of violations to Apple patents, and required to pay US$119 million in damages. Besides, a few months ago, the court decided to reduce Apple’s US$930 million win over Samsung in the first case since it was revealed that Samsung did not infringe on Apple’s overall look and feel of the device.
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In relation to this current development of the lawsuit, FOSS Patents blog writer, Florian Mueller, stated that: “The amount seems high to me given that the products at issue in this case (the first litigation between the two companies) were already somewhat outdated by the time of the 2012 trial.
While I strongly disagree with Apple’s enforcement of patents held invalid, yesterday’s motion could not be accurately described as adding insult to injury: it’s merely a logical step of the overall enforcement efforts Apple has started.”
Florian also stated that even though Apple obtained permission to brought a motion for supplemental damages and interest, he thinks that this should be backtracked since he believes that “no one in this industry, including Apple, would want invalid patents to be enforceable in any way.” He added that the withdrawal would be impossible to hope or ask for at this point.
(Source: FOSS Patents via CNET)
