Apple wants $2.5 billion in damages from Samsung in a jury trial on patent infringement, which will begin next week in the United States. The amount is based on intellectual property rights, calculated per unit, that Apple believes it should receive from Samsung, according to CNET portal. Overall, the amount of $2.5 billion is covering both design and technology, but the design is what Apple mostly claims.
The dispute between the two largest smartphone makers began with the initiation of a lawsuit from Apple against Samsung in a California court, in which it accused the South Korean group that it copied the iPad and iPhone devices for its own Galaxy line. Samsung responded quickly with counter-lawsuits in various countries.
Despite Judge Lucy Koh’s efforts to persuade both sides to agree out of court, a truce looks unlikely at this time. The trial is scheduled to begin on July 30 in San Jose federal court, California. Samsung recently surpassed Apple to become the largest manufacturer of smartphones in the world. Jurors will have to decide whether Samsung has come honestly in the first position, or, according to Apple, by cheating and copying the design of the iPad and iPhone. Such lawsuits, with results difficult to predict, are usually avoided by even the most bitter opponents, says Wall Street Journal.
For companies the size of Apple and Samsung, jury trials can be very risky. The 10 jurors in this case, of which most are ordinary people with little knowledge about software and patents, will have the power to decide not only who is right, but also the amount of compensation.
A last-minute deal seems unlikely. Several rounds of negotiations have not led to any result, and since the onset of the first trial, 15 months ago, the two companies have fought almost about everything, from procedures to claims of the deceased co-founder of Apple, Steve Jobs , that may be invoked by each of the two parties in court. The situation is complicated by the fact that Apple is the largest client of Samsung division, which manufactures chips and screens for smartphone and tablets.
Reply