Samsung attempted to deal from the bottom of the legal card deck as it has played the “race card” in an attempt to get a retrial of the most recent retrial of it’s patent battle with Apple.
Following a recent retrial in the Apple v. Samsung case that saw the jury award the former with a cool $290 million on top of the nearly $600 million in previous damages over copying patented iPhone technology, Samsung of South Korea now wants a retrial of the retrial, citing a very unusual argument. Apple throughout the trial has painted Samsung as a “threat” to the local and national economy.
So now lawyers for the South Korean electronics maker are now accusing Apple of racial prejudice, as they ask Judge Lucy Koh to grant Samsung a retrial of this, the most recent retrial.
Samsung says Apple portrayed the South Korean firm as a foreign company who threatened the U.S. economy by flooding the domestic market with numerous products.
Patent blogger Florian Müeller who says Samsung is appealing just for appealing’s sake, has this quote by Samsung’s attorneys:
Samsung respectfully requests a new trial based on Apple’s repeated references to Samsung’s revenues from all infringing products, as opposed to those found to infringe upon Apple’s design patents, and blatant appeals to racial, ethnic and national prejudice.
Throughout the trial, Apple portrayed Samsung as a foreign threat to the local and national economy… Apple’s cynical appeal to racial, ethnic and national sentiment has no place in our system of justice and warrants a new trial.
To be fair, Apple did draw parallels between Samsung and Asian electronics manufacturers who flooded the U.S. market with cheap products that put domestic television set makers out of business. (Zenith was the last hold-out, and it’s been decades since they offered a “made in the USA” set.)
So, what do you think readers? Is Samsung grasping at straws by playing the “race card” in an attempt to get one more “do over” in court? Or do you think the South Korean firm has a valid point? Please, share your opinions in the comments section below.
