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Samsung plans to appeal $290 million verdict

November 22, 2013

By Kim Yoo-chul

Samsung Electronics said Friday that it will appeal the latest verdict by a U.S. jury that it should pay Apple $290 million for copying vital iPhone and iPad features.

Samsung said that it will file a “judgment as a matter of law” (JMOL) with the San Jose court. .

“We plan to file documents requesting a JMOL before a final order by the U.S. federal Judge Lucy Koh, which is slated for early next year,” said a Samsung spokesman.

A JMOL is a legal motion filed by a party during proceedings claiming that the opposing party has little evidence to support its case.

The move comes after a jury composed of six women and two men ordered the Korean company to pay $290 million more to the Cupertino-based outfit, raising the total Samsung payment to Apple to $900 million.

The previous jury awarded Apple $1.05 billion. But U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh ordered the new trial and nearly halved the payment to $600 million. The new jury was recalculating the remaining portion, reviewing whether Samsung intentionally copied five Apple patents.

Samsung earlier said it should only pay $52 million, and then asked the San Jose court Thursday to completely halt its deliberations citing a recent decision by the U.S. patent office that questioned the validity of a key Apple “pinch to zoom” patent.

“In a previous verdict by a California jury, Samsung had filed a JMOL motion to the judge insisting on the jury foreman’s apparent misconduct. Parts of Samsung’s claims were accepted. We will try hard to persuade Judge Koh to accept the new JMOL for a fair and balanced decision,” said another Samsung official.

The $900 million payment to Apple won’t significantly affect Samsung in terms of profit. But Samsung said such an additional payment was “too much.”

Patent attorneys in Korea said Judge Koh, who has presided over the case since the beginning, is expected to lower the damages amount. However, they added it’s unlikely that it will be significantly reduced.

“As the patent office in the U.S. asked Apple to submit evidence of the validity of its “pinch-to-zoom” patent, the main focus by Samsung attorneys will be that the $290 million wasn’t fair,” said Chung Woo-sung.

Apple said the patent was its own, while Samsung has insisted the patent was nothing new.

A third trial between the two tech giants is slated for March and will cover the latest flagship models from Samsung Electronics and Apple including the former’s Galaxy S3.