Apple Wants $707 Million More From Samsung

Apple has asked the court in San Jose, California to award it with an additional $707 million (£436m), to compensate for “damage to the iPhone’s distinctive product identity” done by Samsung.

Last month, the South Korean company was found guilty of infringing on Apple’s software and design patents, and ordered to pay $1.05 billion (£664m). Apple is also seeking a permanent sales ban on some products, which could now include Samsung’s flagship Galaxy S III.

Samsung denies it “copied” rival’s technology, and is requesting an entirely new trial.

Mo’ money

On 24 August, after a three-week trial and three days of deliberations, a US court ordered Samsung to pay Apple $1.05 billion in damages. The nine person jury ruled that Samsung products, including the Galaxy S II and Galaxy Tab, violated Apple patents. In the majority of cases, the jury found that Samsung’s infringement of them was “wilful.”

The decision of the jury, which had little technical expertise, was criticised in the media, while some analysts accused Apple of focusing too much energy on litigation at the cost of innovation.

The companies will return to court in December to hear the result of an application by Apple for a sales ban on several of Samsung’s smartphone and tablet devices.

In a Friday filing, Apple asked for more money to compensate for the damage Samsung allegedly did to the iPhone and iPad brands. “Samsung has reaped extraordinary rewards from its wrongful sale of iPhone and iPad clones by taking market share, revenues, and profits from Apple,” wrote the company, according to the BBC.

Apple wants a further $400 million for design patent infringement, $135 million for wilful infringement of its utility patents, $121 million in supplemental damages based on Samsung’s product sales and $50 million of prejudgment interest on damages.

The company also seeks a sales ban on any product with features “not more than colourably different” than those covered in the lawsuit. This wording could mean trouble for Samsung’s best-selling Galaxy S III.

Cry foul

Meanwhile, the South Korean company has requested a new trial, claiming that it wasn’t given a fair treatment by the US jury. “The Court’s constraints on trial time, witnesses and exhibits were unprecedented for a patent case of this complexity and magnitude, and prevented Samsung from presenting a full and fair case in response to Apple’s many claims,” wrote Samsung lawyers.

The jury, which consisted of nine members, included two engineers and four office workers from technology companies. According to CNet, only one member owned an iPhone, and no one owned a Samsung smartphone. One of the jurors didn’t own a mobile phone altogether. Two members had served on a jury before and only one had any previous involvement with patents.

“It is unfortunate that patent law can be manipulated to give one company a monopoly over rectangles with rounded corners, or technology that is being improved every day by Samsung and other companies,” said Samsung in a separate statement, reports Reuters.

Last week, Samsung also said it could sue Apple over the use of patents related to 4G Long-Term Evolution (LTE) wireless communication, used in the design of the iPhone 5.

Ironically, next Apple could be sued by the Swiss Railways, for allegedly stealing the design of the clock used in iOS.

The South Korean company has recently released a series of advertisements mocking iPhone 5 and people who spent days in the queues to get one (below). You can read our report about some of the longest queues in Apple’s launch history here.

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