“After weeks of playing defense against five Apple patents, Samsung this week went after Apple with two of its own patents: one it says is infringed when people make FaceTime calls, and another that covers the photo gallery feature found on iPhones, iPads, and some iPods,” Josh Lowensohn reports for The Verge.
“In the case of the video patent, Samsung says it’s being infringed every time iOS users begin a FaceTime call over cellular networks, or if they send video messages to one another through the Mail and messaging ap,” Lowensohn reports. “Samsung’s other patent covers photo galleries, and was originally invented by Hitachi in 1997. The company owned it until 2011, when Samsung bought it. In essence, it covers photos and videos that are grouped into albums and folders, and shows people the difference between the two types of media when they are next to one another. It also lets users search through photos.”
“For both, Samsung is asking for $6.9 million in damages, with the overwhelming majority of that coming from the patent covering video. Samsung is asking for $6.78 million for the video patent, and just $158,400 for the image gallery patent,” Lowensohn reports. “According to Apple’s attorneys, Samsung bought the pair of patents specifically for the case, instead of inventing them in-house. The original inventors on the video patent, for instance, originated in Oklahoma, and the gallery patent originally belonged to Hitachi. In the case of the video patent, Samsung disclosed that it paid $2.39 million to acquire it in 2010, the same year FaceTime debuted alongside the iPhone 4. Apple hopes that will stand in stark contrast with its five patents, two of which were filed the day the company introduced the iPhone, and all developed within the company.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Attribution: 9to5Mac. Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Arline M.” for the heads up.]
Dear Samsung if you didn’t steal or cheat you would have not running into law-suit after law-suit.
Was this mentioned at the trial and allowed to stand with the jurors?
Samsung trying to ask a very low price for two patents so that in the future they can say all such patent from Apple are only worth $6million or so. They can then continue stealing anything they want.
I’m no fan of Samsung but whats the problem with buying patents to use as a way to extract fees etc from others?
Seems a bit hypocritical of Apple to have a problem with it considering they are a major holder of RockStar which exists solely to hit others in the industry with fees over a large cache of Nortel patents.
I agree. Their not in the best position for this trial. Only thing going for them is it’s in the USA.
I maybe fast asleep, but didn’t The Rockstar Consortium buy the Nortel patents as a defensive measure against Gcrookle? And who comprises The Rockstar Consortium @ Really and mks111?
Zzzzzzz, Snorrrrrrr, Zleep bloggingzzzzzzzzz, Snorrrrrr.
Samsung sincerely hates itself. No conscience. No ethics. No future.
Just sit back and watch. This is the seriously first time I’ve gotten the sense that Samsung has a death wish. They’ll succeed no doubt. What a waste.
I don’t see how having a bought patent has any effect on the infringement of that patent by another party..