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Dec

Samsung Drops All Bids For Injunctions Against Apple Products In Europe

Posted by David Ruddock in Legal, News, Samsung

Samsung has officially sought to end all of its claims requesting bans of Apple products in Europe, according to a company official. The decision comes on continued probing by the European Union's anti-trust body, on allegations that Samsung is abusing its standards-essential patents by seeking product bans for their infringement. Note that this does not mean Samsung has dropped its lawsuits - merely the injunction demands involved in them.

Standards-essential patents have played a pretty important role in the mobile patent wars to date, though that role has been one which is increasingly under question. SEPs are patents on technologies that are used across broad parts of an industry (such as the underpinnings of 3G connectivity, for example), and because of their value as technological standards, are required to be licensed on a reasonable and non-discriminatory basis to anyone seeking such a license.

Dec

Judge Koh: Samsung's Jury Misconduct Claims Are Baseless, Thrown Out, Apple's Bid For Product Injunctions Denied

Posted by David Ruddock in Android OS, Legal, News, Samsung

Breaking news coming out of California's Northern District Court tonight, as Judge Lucy Koh, who presided over the now-infamous Apple v. Samsung trial, has issued post-trial rulings on the parties' respective motions.

Jury Misconduct (Vel Hogan)

Judge Koh ruled that no jury misconduct occurred during the Apple v. Samsung trial, and that she would refuse to entertain the issue further. The judge will not even hold an evidentiary hearing on the matter, meaning Samsung failed in even at the most basic level in arguing its case for a new trial on account of Vel Hogan's alleged biases. This issue can be appealed, but the bar for overturning a post-trial motion for a new trial on the grounds of juror misconduct is abuse of judicial discretion - meaning you can probably consider this issue dead and buried.

Nov

Court Says HTC Must Let Samsung's Lawyers See The Entirety Of Its Settlement With Apple

Posted by David Ruddock in Android OS, HTC, Legal, News, Samsung

The word "unredacted" is experiencing quite a spike in usage this morning, on news that HTC and Apple are being required to produce the full, uncut version of their patent licensing agreement for use by Samsung's legal counsel. The document in question, which had previously been provided sans 33 words (some of which were, presumably, numbers), was requested by Samsung last week for the purpose of arguing against Apple's post-trial motions for permanent injunctions against infringing Samsung products. To be clear, this request is a part of the already-gone-to-verdict $1 billion trial that happened this summer.

Samsung's request is evidentiary in nature, and because of the highly sensitive material involved, HTC and Apple's settlement will be for "attorney's eyes only," meaning any references to it in the record will be filed under seal, and redacted from any publicly released documents.

Nov

Samsung Mobile Chief's Refusal To Negotiate With Apple Is Posturing, And It's Probably Not Even True

Posted by David Ruddock in Editorials, Legal, News, Samsung

I can't say I'm the biggest student of Gandhi, but that whole "an eye for an eye and the whole world goes blind" bit sure came to mind this morning when I read that Samsung's head of mobile, Shin Jong-kyun, said the company "[does not] intend to (negotiate) at all" with Apple. This came on news of HTC's settlement with Apple on Saturday, which I contend is objectively good for the industry and consumers, no matter how you spin it.

First, let's look at the backstory. Apple and Samsung are involved in probably over a dozen various legal entanglements across the world.

Nov

Apple Adds Note 10.1 And Galaxy Nexus Jelly Bean Update To Lawsuit Against Samsung

Posted by David Ruddock in Jelly Bean 4.1, Legal, News

In a request to amend its second California lawsuit against Samsung today, Apple asked a judge to the Galaxy Note 10.1 tablet, and Android 4.1 as it appears on the Galaxy Nexus.

At first glance, it may seem like Apple is now drawing in the entire Android operating system into the suit, but really, it's been like this from the beginning. The Galaxy Nexus was accused from the date of filing in this lawsuit of infringing eight Apple software patents, and today is still accused of infringing those 8 even with its update to Android 4.1. The most we can glean from this is that Google apparently didn't take very convincing steps to avoid any of Apple's software patents in Android 4.1.

Oct

Apple Publishes A Statement On Its UK Website Saying That Samsung Did Not Copy The iPad, But Only Because Their Products Aren't As Cool As Ours

Posted by John Thompson in Legal, News, Samsung

After months of media hype and courtroom battles, Samsung was finally ordered to pay Apple $1.05 billion by a U.S. court a couple of months ago, for infringing the company's design patents. On the other side of the pond, however, things haven't been quite as clear cut, with a UK judge ordering Apple to publish ads stating that Samsung did not copy the iPad at all.

Today, Apple has posted a statement on its UK website saying just that, but its PR team has also taken the opportunity to say a few more words about Samsung as well.

After noting that "the Galaxy Tab 10.1, Tab 8.9 and Tab 7.7 do not infringe Apple’s registered design No.

Oct

Apple's Rubber-Banding Patent Is Invalid - Here's What That Actually Means, And Why It Was Invalidated

Posted by David Ruddock in Legal, News, Samsung

In perhaps its soon to be most-publicized decision in decades, FOSS Patents is reporting that the USPTO has issued an initial finding of invalidity on every claim in Apple's patent for "rubber-band scrolling," that is, the scroll bounceback patent which anyone with half a brain knows is about as patent-worthy as any purely aesthetic user interface element is.

The claims were rejected on findings of prior art from two sources - an AOL patent, and a patent previously filed by Apple. All of the claims of the '381 patent were either rejected as being anticipated (previously described) by prior art, or being obvious in light of it.

Oct

Jury Foreman Vel Hogan On Samsung Vs. Apple Case Failed To Disclose He'd Been Sued By Seagate, Partially Owned By Samsung

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Legal, News

Just when you thought this whole Samsung vs. Apple case couldn't get any weirder, we're now hearing that Vel Hogan, the jury foreman on the case who helped guide the jurors on patent law and owns some patents himself, was once sued into bankruptcy by Seagate. Samsung, as it turns out, just happens to be the largest single investor in Seagate, owning 9.6 percent of the hard drive company's stock. While it doesn't guarantee that a juror's judgment could be clouded, it is the kind of information one would expect to be volunteered to a courtroom. Mr. Hogan, however, did not disclose this information.

Sep

Apple Seeking $707 Million More In Damages On Top Of The $1 Billion It Already Won Against Samsung

Posted by David Ruddock in Legal, News, Samsung

After winning a $1.05 billion verdict against Samsung for alleged trade dress dilution and patent infringement, Apple has filed a motion with the presiding judge of the tech world's biggest trial requesting a massive increase in the initial jury award.

An additional $707 million has been tallied up by Apple's lawyers as being due to the company, and unfortunately, the logic here is sound. The jury in the case found Samsung willfully infringed Apple's design and software patents (meaning they should have known they were infringing, basically), and under US statute, this entitles Apple to an award of triple the amount of the actual damages resulting from infringement.

Sep

Samsung Will Add The iPhone 5 To Its Existing Lawsuit Against Apple In The US

Posted by David Ruddock in Legal, News, Samsung

Reuters is reporting that Samsung will be amending its counterclaims against Apple in the two companies' second lawsuit in California, currently scheduled for trial in March 2014. Here's what Samsung is saying:

"Samsung anticipates that it will file, in the near future, a motion to amend its infringement contentions to add the iPhone 5 as an accused product ... Based on information currently available, Samsung expects that the iPhone 5 will infringe the asserted Samsung patents-in-suit in the same way as the other accused iPhone models."

This trial focuses squarely on software patents Apple is claiming are violated by the entire Android operating system (eg, the app picker, unified search, auto-correct), and has essentially nothing to do with product design.