Apple Demands $40 Royalty per Samsung Unit in Next Trial

Apple has gone too far, says Florian Müller of Foss Patents. After years of alternatively supporting and criticizing Apple’s moves in its patent disputes, for the first time Müller doesn’t just disagree with the iPhone maker, but he is rather wondering whether it has lost its mind.

His outrage comes after reading a public transcript of a January 23 hearing held by the US District Court for the Northern District of California in advance of the second Apple vs. Samsung trial, which is due on March 31.

Apple’s damages theory for the trial that will begin in less than three weeks (on March 31) is an objective insanity, and I say so even though Judge Koh allowed Apple to present it to the jury.

It’s about Apple’s damages theory: The iPhone maker is demanding $40 for five patents per phone/tablet from Samsung. The patents relate to the phone number tapping feature, unified search, data sync, slide-to-unlock, and autocomplete.

$40 per unit. For five software patents. Give me a break. Reality distortion would be a total understatement for this.

The damages demand of $40 per unit compares to the $7.14 royalty claim for three software patents asserted in the 2012 trial, which resulted in $929 million in damages awarded to Apple.