Samsung is pinning all of its legal hopes on asking a court to appoint a new jury to determine if 14 of its products infringe at all on Apple’s iconic products. With 40% of the billion-dollar patent infringement against it already on hold, the move could lead to a lower monetary judgement.
In preparing to respond to Apple’s request for an April 3 case management conference and near-term damages trial, Samsung according to FOSS Patents has asked permission to exceed the court’s page limit for its response. Samsung’s explanation for exceeding the page limit invokes the Seventh Amendment, claiming that a new jury cannot simply rely on a previous jury’s decision to determine new damages for the 14 products vacated from the $1.05 billion verdict, but that they must determine whether the products actually infringed patents Apple holds.
Apple was awarded a $1.05 billion jury verdict in August 2012, when the jury found that many of Samsung’s products infringed on Apple design and software patents. In early March of this year, Judge Lucy Koh vacated a $450 million portion of that verdict, finding that the jury had improperly awarded damages for 14 of the products, and that new proceedings were needed to establish the proper amount of damages for those devices.
Apple has pushed to make progress in regard to already awarded damages, and to secure injunctive relief on infringing products. Judge Koh has so far denied Apple’s requests for sales bans on such devices as the Galaxy Nexus, while Samsung has vigorously played defense against Apple’s appeals of the judge’s decision.
