I think we are all ready for another round of patent trials, as it has been rather quiet on that front for a bit longer than we have been used to recently. Today though we have a tidbit of news on just when Samsung and Apple will square off yet again in this seemingly endless array of patent trials. The amount of damages that Samsung owes to Apple was cut back in March by Judge Lucy Koh, but that was not all cut and dry. A new trial would have to be set-up to determine just what would happen to that dollar amount that was removed from the original settlement. The courts set that date today in a management order to the parties; November 12th is the day that all of the fun will begin, and as of now, it is scheduled to go on through 18, November 2013.
This newest trial in the string of meetings between Samsung and Apple was originally to determine an award of up to $450,514,650 that would be decided, out of the original $1.049 billion in “damages” that was awarded to Apple back in August of last year. A couple of things changed today though as Judge Koh awarded or re-awarded the amount in damages from the Galaxy SII infringements from the original trial to Apple. These were damages that had been thought to be calculated incorrectly by using an inaccurate timeframe. It turns out that Apple’s notice to Samsung regarding possible infringement was, in fact, issued months before the SII went on sale. Apple did fail though in trying out the same argument against the Infuse 4G.
There have been a few other changes in the patents that are in question in this trial since it began, and Samsung has requested that the trial be put on hold until a decision has been made on whether or not Apple’s ‘381 or the bounce-back patent or the ‘915 or pinch-to-zoom patent become officially invalidated after the ‘381 patent was tentatively invalidated late last year. This does not mean that the patents are invalidated yet as these were first Office decisions that tentatively invalidated the patents. FossPatents.com in a December 20, 2012 blog post explains this quite well.
“Since the spring of 2011 I have been saying till I was blue in the face that first Office actions are non-final. But that does not mean that they are meaningless. These are ex parte reexaminations (triggered by a request, which can be and in each of these cases was filed anonymously (by a law firm not disclosing any client)….Of the three Apple multitouch software patents that have given rise to tentative rejections in the form of first Office action, I believe the ‘915 patent is most likely to have some surviving claims when all is said and done, but claim 8 is now under more pressure than some other claims…Some Apple multitouch patents have already been declared invalid by a UK court (with respect to that jurisdiction).” FossPatents.com Dec-2012
Koh did not grant the Samsung request to put the trial on hold until an out-and-out decision had been made on these patents’ validity, but did put in writing that Samsung could request a stay on any damages related to the patents in the future should a conclusion be reached on said patents prior to the November 12th trial date.
Things are already starting to heat up, and we are still many months away from the trial. Rest assured that Android Headlines will bring you every breaking detail in this patent war as soon as we get our rookers on the details. Let us know what you think about the upcoming trial below in our comments section.