Week 5 Blog 9: Oops

Following the latest updates on the war between Apple and Samsung, federal Judge Lucy Koh has nearly halved Apple's winnings from Samsung's 14 patent infringing devices, from $1.05 billion to "just" $599 million. Apparently, the jury comprised of 9 people took into account Samsung's profits from sales of these 14 devices while calculating compensation cost, and this made the $401.05 difference. The Judge specified that when it comes to utility patent infringement, Samsung does not need to reimburse Apple for its profits.

I think it's interesting to see how they rule design and utility patents separately. Design and utility have been the two main topics of discussion throughout this war, and even though people may think Samsung copied everything from Apple, it's been more about the design aspect for Apple. The look and feel of the phones, from rectangles with rounded corners to the simplicity of a few tactile buttons, have been the heat of the discussion, and while Samsung phones look very similar to the iPhone, Apple never had that strong of an argument in terms of the function of the phone and how it works because Samsung has already had a strong background in technology. Don't forget Samsung countersued Apple for patent infringements in wireless communications and camera phones. The focus of Apple's argument was about the resemblance of the phone design, and even though they recently asked for more monetary compensation as well as banning the sale of Samsung devices, it seems they won't even be getting as much as they thought they were getting. I wonder what the jury were thinking when they realized this.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/connieguglielmo/2013/03/01/apples-award-cut-in-half-in-samsung-patent-case-judge-calls-for-new-damages-trial/