In the document filed with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, Judge Koh found that Samsung did not act willfully in infringing on Apple's patents, denying the Cupertino company a chance to triple damages associated with the suit.

The jurist granted Apple's motion that sought judgment as a matter of law to invalidate two claims of Samsung's U.S. Patent No. 7,675,941 for wireless data packet technology and denied five others:

• DENIES Apple's motion for judgment as a matter of law that Apple's unregistered iPad/iPad 2 trade dress is protectable, infringed, and diluted;
• DENIES Apple's motion for judgment as a matter of law that the Galaxy Tab 10.1 infringes the D'889 Patent;
• DENIES Apple's motion for judgment as a matter of law that all accused Samsung phones infringe or dilute all Apple's intellectual property as asserted, and that all acts of infringement or dilution by accused Samsung phones and tablets were willful and induced by SEC;
• DENIES Apple's motion for judgment as a matter of law that the '893, '711, '460, and '516 Patents are invalid; and
• DENIES Apple's motion for judgment as a matter of law that Samsung is liable to Apple for breach of contract and antitrust violations stemming from breach of the ETSI IPR Policy.

Apple and Samsung's legal battles in this case began a little over a year ago, and went to trial in August of 2012. A nine-member jury then awarded Apple $1.05 billion, and because the jury ruled the infringement was wilful, the monetary damages could have tripled in post trial deliberations based on US Laws. At a post trial hearing in December, Koh heard arguments from each party as to whether the damages were appropriate, if any of Samsung's products should be banned for sale in the US, and if the jury decision should be thrown out. Although the jury originally ruled heavily in Apple's favour, Judge Koh's post trial decisions have lessened damages for Samsung.

In addition to addressing wilful infringement in the ruling of the 29 January, Samsung's motion for a new trial was denied, and Judge Koh ruled Apple would not be getting three times its originally awarded damages amount.

"Given that Apple has not clearly shown how it has in fact been undercompensated for the losses it has suffered due to Samsung's dilution of its trade dress, this Court, in its discretion, does not find a damages enhancement to be appropriate," Judge Koh wrote.

She explained that Apple delivered an inconsistent argument, first claiming money could not compensate Apple for the harm it had been dealt by Samsung's actions, then requesting $400 million in compensation.

On whether Apple's unregistered iPad and iPad 2 trade dress are protectable, Judge Koh sided with the jury and found no infringement or dilution from Samsung.

Source

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It was the late Steve Jobs' worst nightmare. A powerful Asian manufacturer, Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, uses Google Inc's Android software to create smartphones and tablets that closely resemble the iPhone and the iPad. Samsung starts gaining market share, hurting Apple Inc's margins and stock price and threatening its reign as the king of cool in consumer electronics.

Apple's current CEO Tim Cook did not want to sue Samsung over smartphone patents, according to a new Reuters report. He was opposed to the lawsuit, largely because of Apple's supplier relationship with Samsung, according to Reuters.

Steve Jobs was the one that really wanted to go after Samsung in the courts once he saw how it was copying the iPhone and the iPad.

Despite the fact that Apple won its trial against Samsung in California, its litigation results around the world haven't been great. More importantly, the patent suits haven't slowed down the rise of Samsung one bit.

 

And since then, he's done just that. Apple settled with HTC. And Cook has talked to Google and Samsung about settling other lawsuits.

 

 

Full Story: Reuters

 

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Apple is not the only rival that Samsung has to watch out for. When you've got everything going on for you, expect even the tiniest the unlikeliest opponent to go after you. As Samsung continues to dominate the market, disputes over patent and market share do emerge between various Android OEMs. HTC and LG recently released jabs against the recently-launched Galaxy S 4, saying that its features, while there are plenty, are mediocre and not what they actually expected.

HTC even decided to display the HTC One outside where the S 4 event was held last March 14th. On the other hand, LG mimicked the S4 pre-launch teaser in a parody to stir interest on its Optimus G Pro.

On more serious notes, according to Yonhap News, LG wants to sue Samsung for using the eye-tracking technology that it introduced as one of the main features of the S 4. LG is now claiming that they have patented this technology as early as August 2009. As of moment, the company is waiting for the S 4 to be delivered in stores worldwide, to verify their chances with the patent infringement issue with Samsung S 4. These two companies had similar issues with their display screens before but looked to have settled out of court.

ThenextWeb

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A new report shows that a quarter of U.S. patents issued this year are likely to be related to mobile technology. That's up from just 5 percent of all patents in 2001, according to analyst Chetan Sharma.

For his research, Sharma appeared at more than 7 million mobile patents awarded in the U.S. and Europe, the two largest markets for patents globally at the moment. He discovered that the U.S. has stolen a march in excess of its previous world counterpart given that 1996. The U.S. accounts for nearly a few-quarters (72%) of all mobile patents across the two locations.

Samsung led all companies in terms of U.S. mobile patents granted last year, while IBM filed the most applications last year, followed by Microsoft and then Samsung. Apple broke into the Top 10 on the strength of a slew of computer-graphics patent filings.

Source: techcrunch

 

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A smartwatch device patent has been discovered in South Korea, with concept images apparently revealing that the device could pack a flexible display of some sort.

According to SamMobile, the patent found with the Korea Institute of Patent Information mentions SM-V700 model number for the smartwatch, which is the same model number we've seen in recent Samsung Gear smartwatch rumors. The Gear name is yet to be confirmed though.

Registered on May 31, the model number SM-V700 is mentioned again in the patent filing, and the images show what seems to be a concept design that may or may not make it to the actual product, though the final design should be something similar. You can make quite a few things, such as the placement of the power button, USB port, speaker/mic, and capacitive back and menu buttons, though again, these could just be part of the concept and may be placed differently.

 

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