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What does Judge Koh have in mind?

By Kim Yoo-chul It has all the elements to be a hit drama of epic scale, including a star cast, except anybody interested will risk being sued for pilfering intellectual rights. The Samsung-Apple fight can be seen as taking litigation to the point of frivolity, according to some. Others disagree, saying that it is Apple defending what lawfully belongs to it. Now, the decision, at least in the first round of their fight, lies in the hands of U.S. Federal Judge Lucy Koh, who will rule on a $1.05 billion verdict made by a jury in San Jose, Calif. Her ruling is expected on Dec. 6. Experts say that she will reduce the size of the punitive damages. Basically, their argument is based on two factors. First, it relates to jury foreman Velvin Hogan, who some say is caught in a conflict of interests. He was involved in a legal dispute with Samsung client Seagate in 1993. Secondly, it is about the amount of damages Samsung is to pay, based on big profits from its Galaxy line sales, when in fact only a portion of them should have been taken into consideration. Int

Oct 22, 2012By Kim Yoo-chul
  • Smaller damages for Apple?
  • California verdict under weight of truth
Tech & Science

California verdict under weight of truth

Samsung-Apple patent saga to have first denouement in December By Kim Yoo-chul A jury led by Velvin Hogan, a former engineer and patent-holder, in August awarded $1.05 billion to Apple, accepting the U.S. iPhone manufacturer’s claims that Samsung copied its products. But soon after the verdict in San Jose, Hogan caused controversy and raised questions about whether the verdict was fair as he was quoted as saying, ``We wanted to make sure (the verdict) was sufficiently high to be painful.’’ This is one factor that likely contributed to the size of the award by creating a feeling among the jury that Samsung should be punished for the infringement, according to patent attorneys and legal experts. ``The problem with this line of reasoning is that, by law, US patent damages are intended to compensate the patent owner, not punish the infringer,’’ said Brian J. Love, a professor at Santa Clara University School of Law, in an e-mail interview with The Korea Times.

Oct 22, 2012By Kim Yoo-chul
Tech & Science

Smaller damages for Apple?

Patent expert says jury erroneously reached $1 billion Apple has sued Samsung Electronics in the global patent war. In San Jose, a jury gave the former a $1.05-billion verdict against the latter. Presiding U.S. Federal Judge Lucy Koh will make a final ruling on Dec. 6. This is the first in a series of interviews with experts about what to expect in Koh’s ruling. ― ED. By Kim Yoo-chul, Cho Mu-hyun ``My advice to U.S. Federal Judge Lucy Koh would be to give up hopes of a near-term settlement. If anything can put the parties closer to a settlement, it will be rulings, and even more rulings in California and the rest of the world,’’ said German-based patent expert Florian Mueller of FossPatents, in an interview with The Korea Times, Monday. Mueller said Koh has done everything humanly possible to preside over the multi-billion litigation, fairly. ``One can disagree with some of her decisions. But I don’t think one can blame her for bad intentions,’’ he said. According to his observation, adjustments are likely in the California verdict. ``On the bottom line, Apple obviou

Oct 22, 2012By Kim Yoo-chul
  • Samsung vs. Apple ― What Judge Koh has to know for ruling
Tech & Science

Yahoo to withdraw from Korea

By Kim Yoo-chul Yahoo Korea said Friday that it will shut down its business in Korea and halt its local Internet portal service in December. It will be the company’s first Asian shutdown. The decision came because the Korean unit of the U.S.-headquartered company has been struggling to stay afloat due to heated competition from local rivals NHN and Daum. In a statement, Yahoo said the company has faced several challenges in the past couple of years and decided to pull out of the Korean business to put more resources on the global business and become more powerful and successful. “Yahoo is seriously tasked with bringing a drastic change to a much smaller and profitable company amid faster-moving rivals such as Google and Facebook. Yahoo will focus on other Asian markets but not in South Korea,’’ said Park Hae-dong, the head of public relations office at Yahoo Korea, by telephone. With the money saved from the closure of its Korean office, Yahoo decided to set up a joint venture with Yahoo Japan and Kakao Talk Japan for mobile businesses in the neighboring country. P

Oct 19, 2012By Kim Yoo-chul
Tech & Science

Is Lucy Koh having change of heart?

US federal judge orders Apple to disclose finances By Kim Yoo-chul A U.S. federal judge has ordered Apple to disclose key financial information regarding the profitability of its products, dismissing the technology giant’s earlier request not to make it available to the public. If Apple’s appeal is rejected, it is highly probable that the public will get access to financial details that reveal how much the company makes on each iPhone or iPad sold. The decision came one day after an appeals court in the United Kingdom in Samsung ruled against Apple with respect to the non-infringement of a community design by Samsung Galaxy tablets. ``As this court explained in the Aug. 9 order, Apple has not established that public availability of its product-specific unit sales, revenue, profit, profit margin and cost data would actually provide its competitors with an advantage,’’ Judge Lucy Koh wrote in the ruling, Thursday (local time). ``In addition, there is great public interest in the data. Apple has not provided any new arguments for why this information should be protect

Oct 19, 2012By Kim Yoo-chul
Tech & Science

Samsung, hynix grow closer over cameras

By Kim Yoo-chul Samsung Electronics is increasing its dependence on SK hynix to provide sensors for cameras installed in its smartphones and touch-screen tablets. This also means that Japan’s Sony is at risk of losing one of its biggest customers. Samsung’s partnership with SK hynix is interesting because the two companies are competing for the title of the world’s largest provider of computer memory chips. In the fast-moving technology scene, no friends are forever and neither are enemies. ``As cameras in mobile devices have become essential features, we are buying more backside illuminated (BSI) sensors from SK hynix because they provide good pricing and output commitment,’’ said a Samsung official Friday. ``The resolution in phone cameras has been improving, evidenced by lavish pixel counts. We need to hedge risks across suppliers and we are still buying billions of dollars worth of sensors from Sony. But it’s also true that we are increasing BSI sensor supplies from SK hynix significantly.’’ In comparison to front-side illuminated (FSI) sensors, BSI provide bett

Oct 19, 2012By Kim Yoo-chul
Tech & Science

Samsung, LG not to mass-produce OLED TVs this year

By Kim Yoo-chul Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics’ highly-advanced organic light-emitting diode (OLED) televisions will not be available in stores this year, according to industry sources. “Samsung and LG recently scrapped their plans to mass-produce 55-inch OLED televisions this year as the companies are having serious difficulties in improving manufacturing yield,’’ said an official from leading market research firm DisplaySearch, Thursday. The world’s top two television makers exhibited their first 55-inch OLED sets at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show in the U.S. desert city of Las Vegas. OLED TV is considered the industry’s next big thing. “Samsung and LG planned to start selling OLED TVs at major outlets worldwide during the London Olympics. But mass-produced OLED TVs will be available from late next year, not this year,’’ said the official. The Samsung and LG OLED TVs are just 4 millimeters thick and produce images 200 times sharper than the current mainstream LCD models. Apple’s iPad 2 is 8.8 millimeters. “The total shipments for OLED TVs this yea

Oct 18, 2012By Kim Yoo-chul
Tech & Science

Samsung halts clinical tests for biosimilar

By Kim Yoo-chul Samsung Electronics’ aspirations to find a new growth engine in biotechnology and pharmaceuticals appear to have hit a speed bump. Company officials admit that it has halted clinical tests for SAIT101, a material it hoped would create more effective drugs to fight Hodgkin’s disease. ``We have been conducting clinical tests for SAIT101 in our labs in different locations around the word since March last year. However, the testing has stopped due to some internal reasons,’’ said one Samsung source, asking not be identified. The company had been testing the potential drug material with scientists in 16 countries, including Britain, Spain, Czech Republic, Canada, Brazil, South Africa and Taiwan aside of Korea. It appears that Samsung is being forced to redo the tests from scratch due to changes in safety requirements in Europe and the United States. The U.S. in particular has recently announced new guidelines for the research of biopharmaceuticals, or medical drugs produced using biotechnology. The Samsung source, who is close to the projects, said tha

Oct 17, 2012By Kim Yoo-chul
Tech & Science

LG claims lead in battery lifespan

By Kim Yoo-chul LG Electronics is claiming that its smartphone batteries have a better lifespan than those of Samsung Electronics. The latest attack against its local rival came at a press conference designed to show the key features of LG’s Optimus Vu 2 smartphone at its headquarters in Yeouido, Seoul, Monday. It officially claimed the recently-released Optimus G smartphone is far better than Samsung’s Galaxy S3 in terms of battery life. ``LG Electronics is confident about the battery life among a lot of smarpthones that have been selling in the market. Yes, LG want favorable responses from consumers about that,’’ said an LG Electronics executive Ma Chang-min during a media briefing. The hour briefing was aimed at promoting the advantages of the Vu 2, however, 30 minutes were spent comparing the battery life of the Optimus G and the S3. ``It is rare for a company to criticize a sensitive feature of a rival’s product in a media briefing. LG wants to send a message to consumers that its Optimus-branded Web-connected devices are worth buying and that they no problems

Oct 15, 2012By Kim Yoo-chul
Tech & Science

Carriers suffer profit squeeze

SK, KT, LG struggling due to rising marketing costs for LTE By Kim Yoo-chul, Cho Mu-hyun Korea’s mobile carriers ― SK Telecom, KT and LG Uplus ― are expected to see their earnings drop sharply in the third quarter of this year due to rising market costs and increased expenditure to promote faster and more advanced network technology, according to company officials and analysts. The earnings reports are due soon. Market analysts had earlier expected the carriers to improve their earnings during the third quarter due to a continued increase in subscribers to long-term evolution (LTE) services that should help improve their average revenue per user (ARPU), a critical measurement and performance metric for telecom operators. ``Yes, they’ve seen some improvement in ARPU, however, all telecom companies were very aggressive in the promotion of their LTE services for better stakes,’’ said an official from the Korea Communications Commission (KCC), the nation’s telecom regulator, without elaborating further. During the third quarter, No. 1 player SK Telecom spent over 1 trillio

Oct 15, 2012By Kim Yoo-chul
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