It seems like it’s been a while since we’ve heard any news on the Apple/Samsung lawsuit front, which is not necessarily a bad thing. But today, the silence was broken as Judge Lucy Koh issued a new case management order to the two sides.
According to the order, the two will be battling it out over damages from their August trial this fall, with the next hearing scheduled for November 12. Here, Apple will get a chance to get back some of the $500M Koh cut from its settlement earlier this year…
In addition to setting a court date, Koh has also tweaked her previous rulings a bit, re-awarding some $40 million in damages to Apple for the infringement of the AT&T-branded Galaxy S II. This amount was initially cut due to a timeline discrepancy.
Furthermore, the Judge announced in the order that she is rejecting Samsung’s request to put the damages trial on hold because the validity of two of Apple’s patents have been called into question. She did say, however, that they can revisit this in November.
And it’s true, the USPTO has tentatively invalidated two of Apple’s premier patents: the ‘bounce back’ ‘381 patent and its ‘all-inclusive iPhone’ ‘915 patent, both of which Apple was awarded damages on. But the Patent and Trademark Office has a long way to go here.
At any rate, it looks like the end of this particular battle is finally in sight, as after the November hearing, there won’t be much left to argue about. Unfortunately, a new battle between the two tech giants is scheduled to kick off this summer. Great.