In the very latest Apple vs. Samsung court battle, the latter was ordered to pay its rival damages to the sum of almost $120 million, but as one might perhaps have anticipated, the Korean company is having none of it. John Quinn, Samsung’s lawyer in this particular case, has noted that the Galaxy maker will request that the award of damages be reduced to zero, which is a rather brazen step given the size of the initial award.
Having been found guilty of copyright infringement once again, we all expected Samsung to put up a fight. The punishment Apple sought was quite a bit more severe — to the tune of over two billion, in fact — but even though the award by the jury overseen by judge Lucy Koh is significantly below the Cupertino’s demands, Samsung will continue to fight tooth and nail.
Only a couple of years ago, the jury ordered that Samsung pay Apple a whopping $1.05 billion in damages for a series of hardware-related patents, although following a subsequent appeal, this was greatly reduced. But while this more recent, largely software-based spat has also worked in Apple’s favor, Samsung clearly won’t be going down without a battle.
Intriguingly, the jury also decided that Apple infringed upon one of Samsung’s patents, but given the meager $158,400 award, it’s pretty clear who the overall winner of this case is.
Whether Samsung’s appeal will be heard or mercilessly discarded is a matter for the judge, but it seems very unlikely that such a significant damages award be thrown out entirely. Perhaps, as was the case with the $1.05 billion award before, Samsung may be able to get a reduction through the appeals procedure.
These court hearings between Apple and Samsung are getting a little tiresome, but given how many times these two have locked horns in courtrooms across the world, we don’t believe that this is the last we’ll be hearing on the matter.
Still, it will be intriguing to see whether Samsung’s as-yet undisclosed argument as to why it shouldn’t pay the damages carries any weight, and we’ll be sure to keep you posted on any further developments on this particular story as they unfold.
(source: Bloomberg)
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