Thursday, March 28, 2013

Blog 18: Much In the Air Re: Apple v. Samsung

Administrative Law Judge Thomas Pender submitted his initial determination on remand in the investigation of Apple's complaint against Samsung. Previously, Pender asserted that Samsung had violated four patents, but allowed Samsung workarounds for three utility patents. The last patent was a design patent, which can easily be designed around. The ITC supported Pender's decision.

Pender's decision will go under review and then Apple/Samsung will likely petition for a review of this ruling, leading to further court and ITC deliberations. The decision of this court will have a significant impact on the litigated issues and may potentially result in an injunction against Samsung's products. Previously, a federal judge denied Apple's injunction despite finding that Samsung had violated several patents. Apple's next opportunity to gain a dramatic win against Samsung is for Pender's ruling to support an injunction against Samsung.

To date, Samsung has not disclosed the number of devices that have incorporated the new workarounds mandated by Judge Pender in previous decisions. The ruling will also determine how much Samsung will be forced to modify their products: ideally, Samsung will be able to make changes "under the hood" of their devices that users will not be able to detect, although the possibility exists that the quality of the phones will degrade as changes are mandated by the ITC.

http://www.fosspatents.com/2013/03/itc-judge-issues-preliminary-ruling-on.html



3 comments:

  1. I think a review of the ruling could also play in Samsung's favor. I see it as an opportunity for Samsung to get a second chance at getting off the hook, although this doesn't seem very likely.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Apple and Samsung are still at it. With Apple and Samsung being such fierce competitors in terms of market share now as well, I can see this going on for a long time.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Great article Christopher. Like Jon said, I think a review of the ruling could potentially help Samsung out. Whatever the ruling will be, it will affect both companies in future markets and lawsuits.

    ReplyDelete