It can be of no surprise that Apple aren’t happy with Judge Koh’s recent decision to deny an injunction against Samsung selling products in the US, since Apple thought $1billion damages was clearly not enough first time around.
It was decided that in a recent pair of rulings, that it would not be in the best interest of the Public for an injunction to be granted against devices which only had a few features infringing on Apple’s patents. Similarly, Koh denied Samsung’s request for a retrial. Clearly, Apple disagree and plan to appeal the refusal for an injunction.
Patent expert Florian Mueller believes that there are grounds here to overturn the ruling.
“It may be unprecedented in the legal history of the United States for an injunction motion to be denied across the board despite such a large number of infringement findings (roughly half a dozen) by a jury and, especially, in light of the competitive situation between the two as well as the jury’s findings of willful infringement. If no injunction is ordered in such a case, it is hard to see how any patent holder could ever prevail on such a motion.”
This is together with the disagreement over the damages that Samsung were ordered to pay; Apple think it’s too low, while Samsung argue it’s too high, so there is a possibility Judge Koh could change this also. There is a lot of uncertainty around if this battle will ever end. Apple seemed, a few months ago, to be clear winners, but Samsung clearly have not given up, with money obviously available to burn on lawyers.
The heated legal battle is not confined to the court rooms either, as we’ve seen the consequences of this deteriorating partnership spill onto the product line, with Samsung reducing supply of components to Apple for the iPhone, leading to widespread stock alerts for the iPhone 5, and ultimately onto consumers.
The only conclusion that can be drawn from these courtroom antics is a negative one; it is not a fight for intellectual property any more, nor is it a battle to protect innovation – the sad truth is the longer the battle goes on, the more detrimental effect it will have on both brands.
Watch this space, this courtroom battle clearly isn’t over…