Law & Apple: New Hearing with Samsung; Maybe Jury Did it Wrong

Posted 05/01/2013 at 1:21pm | by Adrian Hoppel

It's like deja vu all over again. This fall, Apple and Samsung will return to the courtroom battlefield to argue about the same issues they've been arguing about for years. In fact, both companies will only be permitted to discuss exactly the same issues as a previously settled case. Well, mostly settled. Read on, we'll explain.

"It's going to be 'Groundhog Day,'" said Judge Lucy Koh. "There's going to be nothing new in this case." With that seemingly apathetic pronouncement, Judge Koh has ordered Apple and Samsung back to court this November to figure out if the jury got it right or not last summer when Apple was awarded more than $1 billion in damages.

To be fair, we already know that jury did it wrong, as the initial award has already been reduced by a federal judge to about $450 million. Now, Judge Koh is concerned that the jury's damage award was, at least in part, incorrectly calculated, based on a flawed understanding of the legal and technical issues involved. A new damage award could cost Samsung more than the current $450 million, or they could escape with even less of a bill. Apparently only a new trial can accurately determine the final amount to be awarded to Apple.

However, a lot has changed since this original trial started; some of the devices in question are not for sale anymore, some of the patents debated are not even valid anymore. Judge Koh has ruled that no new evidence can be submitted, that this hearing will be to determine a damage award for a ruling already issued, but it's not as easy as that. The United States Patent Office is investigating several of Apple's patents for validity right now, patents that were integral to this original case. If the USPTO rules before this new trial in November, Samsung would be permitted to request a stay and have a ruling on the damages delayed further or even dismissed. 

Everything is proceeding as I have forseen.

When the initial, blockbuster ruling came out last summer, it was met with a great deal of shock and awe. The idea of a $1 billion award is powerful enough, but the ruling was lauded as the first big win for Apple in the Patent Wars. However, there was also a bit of discussion about whether, even with having to write a ten-digit check, Samsung still came out on top.

Apple was poised to run away with the smartphone market until Samsung jumped in and snatched up market share with a copycat phone. Even if it cost Samsung $1 billion, it was money well spent if it prevented the iPhone from dominating the way the iPod did just a few years before.

Now, already owing Apple less than half of the original ruling, Samsung is sitting pretty launching Galaxy phones left and right and assumedly laughing between trips to the bank and the courtroom. There is the possibility that Apple could win back some of the lost damages, but there is also the very real possibility that the damages will be reduced or eliminated altogether. Were that to happen, Cupertino would have diverted millions of dollars to cover legal costs, money that could have been spent on new product development, and end up with next to nothing to show for it but a lot of awkward and snarky media hype.

And that's what happens when you "go thermonuclear," as the late Steve Jobs proclaimed Apple was prepared to do to defend its patents (despite oppostion from Tim Cook); the only way to win is not to play.

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