“The post-trial, post-damages-ruling procedures in the first Apple v. Samsung litigation in the Northern District of California are sort of a quagmire,” Florian Mueller reports for FOSS Patents. “It’s clear that a second trial is needed, absent a settlement there could even be a third trial one day, one appeal is already before the Federal Circuit while another is certain to come (it’s just not clear when), and in the meantime uncertainty is growing over the validity of the asserted claim 19 of Apple’s rubber-banding patent. And on top of that, the parties disagree on pretty much everything. Both parties’ proposals are legitimate and have something to offer, unless Apple is right that Samsung’s envisioned appeal would be premature and cause nothing but delay, which is the most critical one of the questions the court has to analyze now.”
“At 11 PM local California time Judge Lucy Koh entered an order on various motions the parties had recently brought. It’s basically a scheduling order that doesn’t contain any definitive decisions. Instead, there will be some further briefing on various contested issues in the weeks ahead, and a case management conference has been scheduled for April 29. All options are on the table,” Mueller reports. “There could be a new damages trial (relating to 14 of the 28 accused products) in a matter of months; if it does take place, it could even be (as Samsung requests) a full retrial on those products involving a new decision on the merits (whether the asserted intellectual property rights are valid and were infringed); and alternatively, the court might enter a partial final judgment with respect to the other 14 products, let Samsung appeal it to the Federal Circuit and stay the proceedings in district court until that appeal is resolved, or possibly even until reexamination of certain patents-in-suit by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), including any related appeals, is resolved.”
Much more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: The unending saga continues, bereft-of-justice as it were.