“The trial in the second Apple v. Samsung case in the Northern District of California will start in less than eight weeks,” Florian Müller reports for FOSS Patents. “Meanwhile, the first dispute between these parties in the same district is approaching the point of final (i.e., appealable) judgment. In an order entered late on Friday, Judge Lucy Koh, the federal judge presiding over these two Apple-Samsung cases, denied both parties’ motions for judgment as a matter of law (JMOL) with respect to the November 2013 limited damages retrial, in which a federal jury awarded Apple a $290 million replacement of a $410 million portion of the August 2012 billion-dollar verdict, resulting in a total damages figure (in the sum of both trials) of $929 million.”
“Samsung based its request for a re-retrial on several theories, one of which was centered around the allegation that Apple’s lead counsel in the retrial appealed to racial, ethnic or national prejudice. The part about bias had more than one component as well. To the extent that Apple’s counsel, in an attempt to challenge the credibility of a Samsung expert witness, referred to the possibility of information being lost in translation, Samsung’s allegations were more than far-fetched and didn’t impress Judge Koh,” Müller reports. “However, there was a portion in Apple’s closing argument that the judge does consider disappointing and troubling — in my view, that portion was not about racial or ethnic bias, but certainly an appeal to patriotism, basically suggesting to Silicon Valley jurors that the prosperity of their home region was at stake because of foreign companies copying U.S. innovators without legal consequences:”
We are extremely fortunate to live in what I’ll call the Greater Bay Area. Not only is it beautiful, but we live in the center of one of the most vibrant economies in the world. Intel, Yahoo, Oracle, Facebook, eBay, and hundreds and hundreds of other companies, including Google, and including Apple, and these companies attract talented employees at every level. Even, we heard, Samsung has opened a research center here so that they can take advantage of the talent in this area.
The companies provide jobs. They create technology that improves the way people work. And the company — and this economy supports an education system that is second to none in the world, Berkeley, Stanford, San Jose State, U.S. [sic] Santa Cruz, even Santa Clara where I went to school.
These educational institutions interact with this economy, interact with these companies and create a place that the whole world knows as Silicon Valley.
But let’s be equally clear about one thing. Our vibrant economy absolutely depends on fair competition. It depends on a patent system that encourages inventors to invent, it encourages investors to invest, and it encourages employers to hire.
If we allow that system of law to decay, investors will not invest, people will not take risks, and our economy will disappear.
When I was young, I used to watch television on televisions that were manufactured in the United States. Magnavox, Motorola, RCA. These were real companies. They were well known and they were famous. They were creators. They were inventors. They were like the Apple and Google today.
But they didn’t protect their intellectual property. They couldn’t protect their ideas. And you all know the result. There are no American television manufacturers today.
Müller reports, “Judge Koh’s order states that this was ‘troubling’… But a retrial is not warranted in Judge Koh’s opinion (and I agree).”
Much more in the full article here.
Related articles:
Desperate Samsung urges mistrial citing racism in Apple lawyer’s remark – November 19, 2013
Citing ‘racial prejudice,’ Samsung wants a retrial of its recent retrial against Apple – December 17, 2013