Now that Judge Lucy Koh has ordered that Apple’s case against Samsung over search patents used in the Siri voice assistant can move forward, it means, as Florian Mueller has pointed out at his blog Foss Patents, it's now official that the new Apple v. Samsung trial in California could lead to a total damages award exceeding the original $1 billion verdict.According to an article at Mobile and Apps, in December 2012, Apple won a $1.5 billion verdict against Samsung in a San Jose, Calif., trial, but Judge Koh denied Apple's request for a permanent injunction against sales of infringing Samsung devices. Apple also filed a separate lawsuit accusing Samsung of violating a set of patents, including one related to Siri voice search technology. Earlier this year, Judge Lucy Koh expressed her concern regarding the need of another case focusing on the same matter using different patterns. She said at that time that ""I just don't know if we really need two cases on this." In addition, she told them she was not “joking” and it was time for “peace” between the two firms.This green light is given only conditionally, as both companies are asked to "significantly" simplify the scope of the case by reducing the number of expert witnesses and expert witnesses. It is exciting to see new progress in this epic battle between Apple and Samsung, esp when the judge is giving so many limitations – it is highly likely that she will inform both parties in the future of the way she expects this to proceed. Needless to say, this war is far from over.
Sadly, the Apple and Samsung case over Siri is just brushing the surface, whereas a company in China is filing a lawsuit because their technology is identical to Siri. These two cases could cause the fall of Apple's iPhone and iPad models.
ReplyDeleteWhile Apple continues to press on with these infringement cases, Samsung continues to develop new and improved phones and have already taken over the title of best cell phone on the market.
ReplyDeleteOf course I say that from the standpoint of iPhone 5 sales compared to Samsung's Galaxy S3. Either way, both companies need to focus more on improving their products instead of trying to prevent their competition from growing. Apple has lost their strangle hold on the market and the best way to regain that is to focus on what's important, their own product.