Technology may move at the speed of electrons, but the law tends to slouch stubbornly along like — well, like an ass.
For all the hubbub about the billion-dollar jury decision in the Apple-Samsung lawsuit (and despite Apple moving forward with a bid to ban eight specific mobile gadgets), we’re not even close to a final resolution of round one in this case — let alone an appeal.
That’s great news for the lawyers (Apple’s team at Morrison Foerster, whose email addresses all read “mofo.com”, is billing at a median rate of $581 an hour, according to court documents). It’s not so great for consumers who want to figure out which phone to buy, or any company that feels the chill of potential patent infringement. And it’ll be a disappointment to anyone used to the lightning pace of social media and Silicon Valley.
What’s Next?
Mark this date in your calendars, trial watchers: September 20. That’s when Judge Koh, who to her credit kept the four-week trial zipping along as fast as it would go, has scheduled the next hearing at her federal courthouse in San Jose.
This is when we’ll find out whether Apple gets to block those eight phones from store shelves, or whether Samsung’s counter-arguments — yet to be filed, but due in the next two weeks — are more persuasive.
Samsung, in the meantime, will likely get the ball rolling on its appeal; it also, separately, has to decide whether to ask Judge Koh to overturn the jury’s verdict. That’s a tricky one, since the Anglo-American legal system has a historic reverence for jury verdicts. But if Samsung thinks it has an argument to the effect that “no reasonable jury” would have decided what this one did, it may go for it.
One point in Samsung’s favor here: the jury did reach its conclusion awfully fast, so much so that even Apple’s lawyers seemed to be unprepared to return to the courtroom Friday. The jury of nine reached a verdict on the 700 questions of patent law before them — yes, 700 — in less than three days of deliberation.
On closer inspection, a couple of the answers —which incorrectly awarded Apple $2.2 million — were incompatible and had to be changed. Perhaps the jury just wanted to go home? Perhaps, Samsung may well argue, they weren’t being reasonable?
Triple Your Damages, Triple Your Fun
Meanwhile, Apple will be trying to press its advantage. It too may argue that the jury was not being reasonable — but in the sense that it awarded too little in the way of damages.
The billion dollar verdict may have been the largest ever awarded in a US patent lawsuit, but it was less than half of what Apple asked for. And it wouldn’t be the first time a judge agreed to triple damages awarded by the jury, especially since it found the infringement was willful (ie. Samsung deliberately set out to copy the iPhone). In such cases, judges are frequently asked to take more punitive action, to the tune of a 3x multiplier.
Samsung wouldn’t have to pay a dime of that, of course, unless it was upheld on appeal.
Visualize a Universal Settlement
In short, the lawyers are just getting their pencils sharpened. There could be years of $581-an-hour invoices ahead. The best hope to end this thing any time soon lies in the executive suites at Cupertino and Seoul — and in a broad negotiated agreement where Samsung licenses Apple patents, much as Microsoft (eventually) did with Windows, and both companies proceed in peace on all fronts.
There are good reasons for both sides to settle. The mood at Samsung appears to be dismal; one executive at a hastily-arranged weekend meeting in Seoul described the verdict as “absolutely the worst scenario for us”, according to the Korea Times. Meanwhile, Apple must consider the fact that Samsung manufactures a good chunk of the Apple-designed chips for the iPhone. You don’t want relations with your chief supplier to degrade too far.
And it’s not as if either side has come out of round one of this suit smelling of roses. For many disgruntled observers, Apple has become a symbol of everything that’s wrong with our current patent system, the merits of its case notwithstanding.
What could ultimately drive both sides to the bargaining table is the pace of technology itself. Apple charged (and the jury agreed) that 28 Samsung gadgets infringe on its patents. But 20 of those are no longer on sale in the US. The market has moved on.
The Galaxy SIII, currently Samsung’s hottest phone, wasn’t even part of this lawsuit. Halting that via the courts would require many more weeks, if not months, of legal procedure. But set up a licensing agreement, and Apple could start making money out of the SIII tomorrow.
What would you advise both sides to do next? Let us know in the comments.
Image courtesy of iStockphoto, manley099
Read more: http://mashable.com/2012/08/27/apple-samsung-not-over/
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