The seven-year battle between Samsung and Apple over iPhone patent infringement isn’t over. The Galaxy S9 smartphone maker has rejected the verdict in a recent case that saw a jury award Apple $539 million in damages. Instead, Samsung has filed a motion to have the decision thrown out, according to Law360.
As a (very) quick refresher: Samsung was found guilty of patent infringement back in 2012. At the time, Samsung was ordered to pay $1 billion to Apple, but that was later reduced to $584 million. It wouldn’t be until 2015 that Samsung actually agreed to pay that much, even as it worked to get the number reduced even further. Which is why the two companies are in a retrial right now, as it has been left up to Apple with the burden of proof to retain any amount of damages paid by Samsung.
This has been a long time coming, but in May of this year a jury finally decided on the final payout between the two companies, with the group deciding on Apple’s side and rewarding the Cupertino-based company $539 million. At the time, Apple said it was “a fact” that Samsung had copied its products. For its part, Apple had been seeking upwards of $1 billion for its troubles, but the jury awarded them just over half of that.
According to the report:
In Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.’s 34-page post-trial motion, the Korean tech giant said the jury’s verdict, which awarded Apple Inc. about half of what it requested, wasn’t supported by the evidence and “no reasonable jury” could reach the jury’s conclusion.
“The jury’s verdict is excessive and against the weight of the evidence on each and every issue identified above, and … the evidence supports a verdict of no more than $28.085 million,” the motion said.
Samsung is beating the same bush here, and doesn’t actually have anything new to say in its latest motion. It appears to simply be echoing what it said in every single court visit up to this point. Still, a hearing has been scheduled for July 26. Apple has until June 21 to respond to this latest motion from Samsung.
This feels like it’s never going to end — even as Samsung, in this latest motion trying to get another hearing, admits it should pay Apple millions of dollars. Just not as much as a jury decided.
Source: Law360