While fans from around the world were out trying to score the new iPhone 5 yesterday, Apple was busy filing its motions for the final judgement in its high-profile patent trial with Samsung.
As most of you know, a jury found Samsung guilty of infringing on Apple’s patents last month, ordering it to pay more than $1 billion in damages. But Apple doesn’t think that’s enough…
The Wall Street Journal reports:
“Apple Inc. asked the judge in its U.S. patent case with Samsung Electronics Co. to raise the $1 billion damage award assigned by a jury last month by $707 million, while Samsung asked the judge to reduce it greatly and order a new trial.
Attorneys for the two companies made the requests in motions for final judgment that were filed late Friday in U.S. District Court in San Jose, Calif.”
Along with its motion to increase the damages, Apple also asked the judge to permanently ban the US sale of 26 Samsung smartphones and tablets (though most of them are older devices).
Samsung, for its part, asked the judge to greatly reduce the damages, citing a few instances it which it thought the jury “improperly assigned damages” for profits lost by Apple due to infringement. If the judge accepts the reductions, damages would drop down to just $35 million.
So the moral of the story is, this thing isn’t over yet. The two companies are scheduled to meet again on December 6, and they have a second case, involving more recent products, brewing for 2014.