By Kim Yoo-chul
Samsung Electronics is expected to see the compensation it must pay Apple reduced by up to 70 percent after a U.S. federal court ruled that the Korean firm did not “willfully” infringe patents.
U.S. Federal Court Judge Lucy Koh handed down some of her first post-trial rulings from the historical patent case between Samsung and Apple late Tuesday.
Koh, who is presiding over the Samsung-Apple dispute, said that she disagreed with one of the jury’s key decisions that Samsung "willfully" infringed on Apple's patents.
She also denied Apple’s demands for a new trial over “trade dress” and damages enhancements for willful infringement.
Trade dress is “the design and appearance of a product together with the elements making up the overall image that serves to identify the product presented to the consumer,” and is the biggest issue in the Apple-Samsung legal battle.
Referring to the judge’s decision on trade dress, a noted patent scholar in Korea claimed the damages that Samsung will have to pay Apple will be significantly cut.
"There are many technical matters. But I cautiously expect the total compensation that Samsung must pay Apple won’t go over $400 million,’’ said Lee Dae-hee, a patent scholar at Seoul’s Korea University School of Law, by telephone.
Last August, nine U.S. jurors ruled in favor of Apple, awarding the Cupertino-based company $1.05 billion in damages after they found Samsung willfully infringed on Apple patents.
"As the U.S. federal judge dismissed this, Samsung expects the damages awarded to be below $300 million,’’ said a senior Samsung official by telephone.
According to German-based patent expert Florian Mueller in his popular FossPatents blog, due to the denial of a permanent injunction, Apple will presumably move at some point for an award of ongoing royalties for future use of its patents by Samsung.
“The denial of an injunction doesn’t mean that Samsung is entitled to a freebie. And it’s a given that either party will ultimately appeal any unfavorable parts,’’ Mueller wrote in the blog.
"One of the key noticeable points in the ruling is that Koh denied Apple’s argument that jurors erred by ignoring Apple’s trade dress claims,’’ said Lee from the Korea University.
Samsung welcomed the decision. "We fully respect the latest decision by the U.S. Federal Judge Lucy Koh,’’ said a Samsung spokesman, Wednesday (KST).
"The court grants judgment as a matter of law (JMOL) that Samsung’s acts of patent infringement weren’t willful. However, the court denies Samsung’s motion for JMOL in all other respects and denies Samsung’s motion for a new trial,’’ a copy of the court ruling obtained by The Korea Times showed.
During a post-trial meeting, Samsung lawyers tried hard to persuade Koh that the verdict was lopsided mostly due to the jury foreman Velvin Hogan’s alleged misconduct and insisted Apple requests to block sales of Samsung products in the United States don’t make any sense.
The judge later accepted the Samsung claim. Koh also said that a re-trial won’t occur because the original trial was ``fairly conducted.’’
"The jury’s $1.05 billion verdict was supported by the evidence and the trial was fairly conducted with uniform time limits and rules of evidence applied to both sides. A new trial would be contrary to the interests of justice,’’ the court ruling said.
"The ruling is just the willfulness part. But the findings of infringement stand,’’ Muller, said via e-mail.
In a related note, Samsung has moved to dismiss Apple’s appeal in Japan after the Tokyo District Court ruled last August that Samsung’s mobile devices didn’t infringe on Apple’s media synchronization patent.
In Korea, the company asked for the iPhone maker to open up its iOS 6 source code to find out if Apple’s Notification Center infringed on Samsung patents.