Newsletter Issue #753: Has the Media Forgotten About the Word “Willful”?
May 5th, 2014So let’s cover the basics: On Friday, May 2, an eight-member jury in a Northern California Federal Court decided that Samsung was guilty of infringing on three Apple patents. The total cash award was $119,625,000. It sounds like an awful lot of money, except that it’s a mere fraction of what Apple wanted — some $2.19 billion — though obviously still a substantial figure.
The verdict involved three patents covering “647,” or data detectors, “721,” or slide-to-unlock, and “172,” for predictive text. But the jury needs to return to court on Monday, because they did not award any money for the “172” patent violation, and thus the figure may increase.
In turn, Apple was found guilty of violating the so-called “449” patent, about an “Apparatus for recording and reproducing digital image and speech,” which Samsung actually acquired from Hitachi. Perhaps it was meant to have something to defend. But the award? A mere $158,400. It was hardly worth the effort.
Print This Post
