In the never-ending legal battle between Apple and Samsung over patent infringement, a jury ruled in favor of Apple last month and asked Samsung to pay $539 million in damages for infringing design and utility patents belonging to Apple. It appears Samsung is in no mood to give up and is embarking on a legal battle again.
“The jury’s verdict is excessive”
According to a Law360 report, Samsung, which was unhappy with the jury’s verdict, has filed a post-trial motion asking the court to ‘grant it judgment as a matter of law or hold a new trial.’ Samsung believes the jury’s verdict was not supported by the evidence. The motion says, “The jury’s verdict is excessive and against the weight of the evidence on each and every issue identified above, and … the evidence supports a verdict of no more than $28.085 million.”
Samsung’s contention with the verdict is centered around the argument that the jury considered the “relevant article of manufacture” for one of Apple’s design patents applies to the entire phone. The company, however, believes the patent which is about the layout of icons on the home screen, a GUI component, has nothing to do with other parts of the smartphone, and thus the damages should be restricted to the value of the infringed parts.
In a separate motion, Samsung has also asked the court to reimburse the $145 million it paid to Apple as damages over an invalid touchscreen patent (No. 7,844,915). The Korean company argued in the motion that since this patent has been invalidated by the United States Patent and Trademark Office, Apple should repay the damages along with interest. This patent was not part of the retrial, but a jury in 2012 found Samsung guilty of infringing this patent and was ordered to pay damages.
