IP
Apple v. Samsung: Justice delayed is justice denied
February 17, 2013: 2:45 PM ETJudge Koh wants a 2014 trial frozen until appeals from a 2011 complaint are exhausted
FORTUNE -- In July 2011, Motorola (GOOG) filed a complaint in Germany's Mannheim District Court charging that Microsoft's (MSFT) Xbox was infringing two of its video-coding patents. In May 2012 -- less than nine months later -- the court granted an injunction.
Contrast that with Judge Lucy Koh's federal court in the Northern District of California.
In April 2011, three months before Motorola, Apple (AAPL) filed a complaint charging that Samsung's smartphones and tablets were infringing Apple's patents, trademarks and designs. The case went to trial 16 months later, and a jury ruled in Apple's favor, famously assessing Samsung $1.05 billion in damages.
Nearly half a year has passed, and no injunction has been granted, no fines have been paid and the judge has yet to issue a final ruling on the damages.
While the legal procedures drag on, Samsung is free to continue selling devices that Steve Jobs claimed -- and the jury agreed -- were Apple rip offs.
But there's more.
Apple filed a second complaint last August asserting that 17 more Samsung products -- including the Galaxy S III, Galaxy Note and Galaxy Tablet 10.1 -- violated still more Apple patents. That trial isn't scheduled to begin until May 2014, one year and nine months after Apple's complaint.
Now Judge Koh wants to put that trial on hold. Bloomberg reports that she told the two parties last week that she would like to freeze the second case until appeals from the first are exhausted. "I don't know if we need two cases on this," she said.
Meanwhile, Samsung is selling Galaxy S IIIs by the millions.
FOSS Patents' Florian Mueller can hardly contain himself. He points out that patent litigation in the U.S. seems to work better for patent trolls than for actual innovators.
"The unwillingness of many U.S. courts to adjudicate patent infringement cases within reasonable periods of time is slowly but surely becoming a serious issue for the competitiveness of the innovative part of the U.S. economy," he says. "It also leads an increasing number of patent holders to rest their hopes for swift resolution of patent cases on certain German courts."
Like that speedy one in Mannheim, for example.
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Apple favored in 4 of 5 issues in Thursday's Samsung hearing
The odds are stacked against Samsung on jury misconduct, liability, injunctions etc.
FORTUNE -- "All eyes are on San Jose," writes Christopher Carani in a preamble to his analysis of the big Apple v. Samsung hearing scheduled for Thursday in Judge Lucy Koh's federal court.
"This is a major hearing in an extremely important patent case that impacts one of this country's most critical and fastest growing industries... This case will have implications far MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Dec 6, 2012 6:54 AM ET -
Why Apple is in no hurry to settle its iPhone patent suits
New analysis suggests the payoff could be seven fold greater if it holds out for a win
In a note to clients issued Monday, Deutsche Bank's Chris Whitmore lists four possible outcomes of the patent wars being fought in courts around the world between Apple (AAPL) and the Google (GOOG) Android ecosystem:
1) settlement with per unit license fee paid to Apple;
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Jan 9, 2012 8:06 AM ET
2) a more favorable outcome where Apple handicaps Android's feature MOREPosted in: Android, Apple, Chris Whitmore, Deutsche Bank, Google, IP, Mobile, Patent infringement, Patents -
Apple vs. Android: A grueling patent war of attrition
HTC was forced to drop one feature. Motorola may have to drop another. More to come.
Many commentators took at face value HTC's declaration of "an actual victory" after the U.S. International Trade Commission ruled that it had infringed Apple's (AAPL) patent on software that allowed a user to dial a number embedded in an e-mail simply by clicking on it. That particular feature was only one of 10 patents Apple MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Dec 23, 2011 6:58 AM ETPosted in: Android, Apple, Florian Müller, FOSS Patents, Google, HTC Corporation, International Trade Commission, IP, ITC, Mobile, Motorola, Patents, Steve Jobs -
'Apple will push its legal claims hard and unrelentingly'
The payoff should Apple prevail in the patent wars: an estimated $30 billion
In a note to clients issued Thursday, Bernstein's Toni Sacconaghi takes a hard look at the flurry of patent lawsuits Apple (AAPL) has launched against the manufacturers of Google (GOOG) Android phones.
All in all, he likes Apple's chances. The two key bullet points (we quote):
We anticipate that Apple will push its legal claims hard and unrelentingly and believe MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Jul 28, 2011 12:50 PM ETPosted in: Android, Apple, Berstein, Google, HTC, HTC Corporation, Intellectual property, iOS, IP, Lawsuits, Motorola, Patents, S3 Graphics, Toni Sacconaghi -
Apple vs. Google: Inside an Android patent violation
Steve Jobs claimed that Google "stole" this Apple innovation. Last week, the ITC agreed.
When an iPhone receives a message that contains a phone number or an address -- e-mail, Web or street -- those bits of data are automatically highlighted, underlined and turned into clickable links.
Click on the phone number, and the iPhone asks if you want to dial it. Click on the Web address, and it opens in Safari. MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Jul 16, 2011 7:45 AM ET
