"By February 6, 2014, the parties will be required to limit their asserted claims to 5 per side and limit their accused products to 10 per side. In addition, the parties will be required to reduce their invalidity references/systems/combinations to 15 per side."
This ruling will likely lead to Apple and Samsung citing five claims at trial time that pertain to five different patents in order to maximize the breadth of the slimmed down case. Notably, Judge Koh's ruling seems to benefit Samsung, based on the fat that Koh's statement calls for a maximum of five asserted claims for each company. This hurts Apple because Apple wanted to assert 12 claims from five different patents, which reduces the redundancy in the case and increases the risk that Apple may suffer a loss based on a limited amount of patents.
Samsung also called for the limit of 5 accused products for each side, although Koh allowed both companies to have 10 products. Samsung likely called for five products to limit Apple's potential damage against Samsung, which does not really work against Apple, because Apple has only one flagship phone, which also serves as the entirety of the product line. This order for litigation simplicity seems like a reasonable request that FossPatents calls "fair and balanced".
I agree with you that limiting the scope of these injunctions if a reasonable request. As we've studied in class, the specificity of a claim is really important. One of the things that's holding the whole system together, I believe, is that patent litigation is focused this way so that litigation does not get out of control.
ReplyDeletethis post also makes us realize how important it is to select the right claims and products to fight in the lawsuit because it can easily turn the tables around. An actual infringement can easily be left out if it is supported by a wrong claim.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the judges move. This war between Apple and Samsung is getting to become way too much that being straigth to the point and being specific is better than to have everything be so broad since theres so much going on between these two companies.
ReplyDeleteI too agree with the Judge Koh's move. This is indeed getting out of hand. Even though this hurts Apple, and is slightly more advantageous for Samsung. It is a good move.
ReplyDelete