Judge denies Samsung’s motion to halt Apple patent damages

Samsung tried to postpone Apple patent damages trial to wait on the Patent Office to examine an important patent’s validity. Last year a jury found that Samsung had violated five patents held by Apple for their iPhone’s design and functions. The judge over the case found in favor of Apple in the amount of around $450 million but later ordered a new trial to reassess damages. There was a previous trial that already awarded Apple $600 million to be paid by Samsung and now have to decide how much more they will add to the total.

Samsung’s argument was that the US Patent Office is questioning validity of Apple patents in this case the “pinch to zoom” feature patent number 7,844,915. If the patent is found to be null then Samsung would be able to then argue that Apple has no case for lost revenue and the current trial would no longer be valid. The actual feature that “pinch to zoom” refers to is being able to bring your fingers together or apart to zoom in or out.

As we have always said “there should be more focus on innovation and less on litigation” since Apple seems to be focused on getting paid for other peoples hard work. We are biased Android enthusiasts although the fact that features meant to be standard on smartphones should not be patent worthy in the first place. We do understand however larger things like new technologies that are copied exactly may be worth a patent but in this case its our opinion that this is a waste of time and money on both parties. Of course our opinion is ours alone and we understand that others feel differently.

Our biggest concern is that fact that patents still under review are able to be litigated before being validated by the patent office? I understand that the patent is in place because it was previously validated but now that its under review again final decisions on damages should follow the review. Let us know what you think about the situation, we’d be happy to hear other point of views even if not inline with ours.




Via Android-advice