Apple and Samsung are facing each other in a California court for a third trial involving the same set of five patents.
According to a new report from CNET, the Cupertino company is seeking $1 billion USD in damages from Samsung as the two firms return to court in a retrial that will determine how much Samsung will need to cough up for infringing on Cupertino’s design patents.
The retrial will determine the damages Samsung will need to pay after it was found guilty of violating Apple’s patents way back in 2012.
The original trial awarded Apple $1.05 billion USD in damages, which was less than half of their ask of $2.75 billion. But, in a turn of events, the judge issued a re-trial citing jury error and struck off $450.5 million USD from the original payment.
This left $1 billion USD on the table. A new hearing was scheduled for November 2013, where the damages to Apple would be recalculated. Come December 2015, it was decided that Samsung would finally pay Apple $548 million USD.
Jurors at the retrial before before U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh in San Jose, California, learned at the outset that the South Korean company infringed three of Apple’s design patents and two utility patents. Their sole job, Apple lawyer Bill Lee said, is to determine what damages Apple can collect.
Basically, the jury must decide whether Samsung should have to pay damages on the whole device, or just on the components that were infringed. Samsung says the latter – and is urging the jury to limit damages to $28 million USD.
“They’re seeking profits on the entire phone,” Samsung lawyer John Quinn apparently argued. “Apple’s design patents do not cover the entire phone. They are entitled to profits only on [infringing] components, not the entire phone.”
The latest trial is expected to last about five days, with the jury to be selected Monday and opening arguments to follow Monday or Tuesday. Neither Apple CEO Tim Cook nor the company’s design chief Jony Ive is expected to testify.
