Following $119 million judgement, Apple seeks retrial and injunction against Samsung products
In the wake of its nearly $120 million judgement against Samsung, Apple continues to go on the attack. In a motion filed this past Friday, Apple argues for a retrial on the damages amount. Recall that at the outset of Apple and Samsung's second California litigation, Apple was seeking upwards of $2 billion.
What's more, Apple is also seeking a permanent injunction against Samsung's accused products that were found to infringe upon Apple's patents, which include the slide-to-unlock feature and data detectors. Some of the more notable products at issue include the Galaxy Nexus and the Galaxy S II. Further, Apple seeks an injunction against any current and future Samsung products which implement Apple's aforementioned patents.
But as Florian Mueller points out, Apple has never had much luck in securing injunctions against Samsung in the U.S. So while Apple argues that it will suffer irreparable harm if an injunction isn't granted, it doesn't appear likely that Apple will attain the injunction it seeks, especially in light of the fact that Samsung can easily code around Apple's patents. Cleverly, though, Apple argues that an injunction should be granted precisely because Samsung can so easily update its software so as to not infringe.
In fact, Samsung represented at trial that it now has non-infringing alternatives ready to go for the '647 patent, which would require "less than a day" to implement. Samsung also represented that it has existing non-infringing alternatives to the '172 and '721 patents-including in its "best selling" Galaxy S III phone.
Given these representations, Samsung cannot legitimately contend that it would suffer any harm from Apple's narrow proposed injunction, which merely prohibits Samsung from using infringing features that it claims to have already designed around-and that, according to Samsung, would be quick and easy to implement.
A redacted version of Apple's motion for a permanent injunction can be viewed below.
Lastly, and as we indicated previously, it doesn't seem that Apple and Samsung will be reaching any type of settlement deal anytime soon.
14-05-24 Public Version of Apple Motion for Permanent Injunction Against Samsung by Florian Mueller
