Judge Koh rules against Samsung, won't delay damages retrial set for November

Judge Lucy Koh ruled on Thursday that she will not delay the retrial on damages set for November between Samsung and Apple. Yes, this is all about the original patent trial that a jury ruled on one year ago Saturday. That $1.05 billion damages award in favor of Apple has been been reduced by Judge Koh to $650 million. The $400 million difference is what the retrial is all about and the jury can decide to raise or lower that amount as it sees fit. Apple's original expert on damages is now deceased and a new expert has signed on. The court and Samsung will have to get used to the new expert's style including her new damage calculations for each product that the jury ruled Samsung infringed on.

Meanwhile, Samsung has been trying to delay the new trial because, well, who wants to have to cut a check for hundreds of millions of dollars to your chief rival? The Korean tech titan tried to have the whole retrial vacated but this attempt was shot down by Judge Koh. In addition, with the USPTO in the midst of re-examining certain Apple patents, Samsung is claiming that the re-examination has led Apple to claim a narrower scope concerning two Apple patents. One would be the infamous '381 rubber-banding patent for the bounce back after scrolling to the very end of a screen. Samsung has asked for a new trial on that patent or in lieu of that, a partial judgment that it could appeal. The appeal process would have put a hold on the retrial which would have essentially given Sammy the delay that it wants. This end run was also shot down by the court.

The other patent is the '915 pinch-to-zoom API patent. Apple had been narrowing the scope of the patent during the re-examination process and Samsung apparently wanted to raise an issue about it during the hearing. No mention of it was made in Judge Koh's ruling which means that for now, we are not sure what issue Samsung wanted to bring up about '915.

So for Samsung and Apple, it looks like the damages retrial will be on as scheduled for November, another chance for the attorneys to show why they get the big bucks.

source: FOSSPatents