1, pp. A US court has ordered South Korea's Samsung Electronics pay $539m (403m) in damages for copying features of Apple's original iPhone. Federal Circuit Appeal, 786 F.3d at 1001-02. Samsung Opening Br. Since then, the number of patents under dispute has skyrocketed, according to the Korea Times, as has the number of courts involved in various countries. A major part of Apple's revenue comes from them. case was pending in the district court. at 10-11 (citing, e.g., Concrete Pipe & Prod. Sagacious IP 2023. Right now, there is a smartphone user base in the billions. 3490-2 at 18. See ECF No. The Patent Act of 1952 codified that "total profit" remedy for design patent infringement in 289, see id., and the Federal Circuit in Nike affirmed that 289 did not require apportionment, see 138 F.3d at 1441-43. The judge eventually reduced the payout to $600 million. See Hearing Tr. Samsung Elecs. [1] Then followed by Apple 2 which was more successful than the predecessor. So we can assume it wasnt a normal lawsuit. Apple and Samsung are major competitors but are also business partners. In my opinion, the continuous patent battle won't benefit both of them in terms of that Apple is the second biggest client to Samsung and Apple relies on Samsung for component supplies such as chips and LCD displays. By contrast, the text of both the Copyright Act and the Lanham Act explicitly impose a burden on the defendant to prove deductible costs. After seeing such failure they started to work on innovating something new. Samsung Opening Br. Hearing Tr. Apple asserts that the same burden-shifting scheme applies to the calculation of total profit. Apple goes on, "For example, where a design patent covers only the 'upper' portion of a shoe, the entire shoe may fairly be considered the article of manufacture if the defendant only sells the infringing shoes as a whole." , the patentee must do more to estimate what portion of the value of that product is attributable to the patented technology."). Second, it argued that Samsung's sales took sales away from Apple and resulted in Apple's losing market share. 43:23-44:3. 378. ECF No. "), vacated in part on other grounds, 90 F. App'x 543 (Fed. REPORT NO. So at this time, it was in good economic condition. Decision Leadership: Empowering Others to Make Better Choices, 2022 PON Great Negotiator Award Honoring Christiana Figueres, Managing the Negotiation Within: The Internal Family Systems Model, Mediation: Negotiation by Other Moves with Alain Lempereur. 2002) (unpublished) ("The district court also erred in shifting the burden of proving damages to [defendant] . The Court concludes that the plaintiff bears the burden of persuasion on identifying the relevant article of manufacture and proving the defendant's total profit on that article. However, the appeals and counter lawsuit processes continued until 2014 when almost every target model was out of production. Hunter, 652 F.3d at 1235 n.11. It went from being an ally to a fierce enemy. 1. The U.S. Supreme Court "construed the statute [in effect at the time] to require proof that the profits were 'due to' the design rather than other aspects of the carpets." . As the Court stated in its July 28, 2017 order, however, once an issue is raised to the district court, "[t]he fact that the proposed instruction was misleading does not alone permit the district judge to summarily refuse to give any instruction on the topic." 1839 at 2088-92 (testimony of Apple's damages expert at 2012 trial); ECF No. The Court then analyzes the various approaches. 'those instructions were legally erroneous,' and that 'the errors had prejudicial effect.'" a. The Method for Determining the Relevant Article of Manufacture. Based on the evidence discussed in the foundation-in-the-evidence section above, the Court finds that a properly instructed jury may have found that the relevant article of manufacture for each of the design patents was something less than the entire phone. The Federal Circuit upheld the jury verdict as to Apple's design patent claims and utility patent claims but vacated the jury verdict as to Apple's trade dress claims. To summarize, the Court adopts the four-factor test for determining the relevant article of manufacture for the purpose of 289 proposed by the United States in its amicus brief before the U.S. Supreme Court. Issues between the two companies continue. Apple has not carried its burden. It filed a lawsuit against Samsung in serious violations of patents and trademarks of Apples property rights. FAQ. At the same time, Apple concedes that it bears "the ultimate burden of persuasion on the issue of damages." The level of evidence required to support a jury instruction is not high: "a litigant is entitled to have the jury charged concerning his theory of the case if there is any direct or circumstantial evidence to support it." ECF No. Thus, Apple bears the burden of proving that it is more probable than not that the jury would have awarded profits on the entire phones had it been properly instructed. Having established these threshold issues, the Court now turns to whether the jury instructions given at trial constituted prejudicial error. Apple also contends that legal errors in the proposed instruction mean that it was not error for the Court to have excluded it. Apple, which Samsung countersued for $422 million, will not have to pay anything to Samsung. Id. The icons on the iPhone were strikingly similar to those in Samsungs phone. Later the company saw the most profits from smartphone sales. (emphasis added). Accordingly, the Court must now set forth the method for determining the relevant article of manufacture for the purpose of 289. The Ninth Circuit explains that the evidence must be viewed in the light most favorable to the . It was a computer encased in a wooden block. "While it is unnecessary to give instructions unsupported by the evidence, a litigant is entitled to have the jury charged concerning his theory of the case if there is any direct or circumstantial evidence to support it." The trial would begin on March 28, 2016. | Apple Tax Avoidance Strategy. Br., 2016 WL 3194218 at *27. 1st Sess., 1 (1886)); see also Supreme Court Decision, 137 S. Ct. at 433 (citing S. REP. NO. to any article of manufacture . 2011) (citation omitted); see also Norwood v. Vance, 591 F.3d 1062, 1067 (9th Cir. The organization is well known for making the remarkable electronics and programming like iPad, Mac, Apple watch and so on. Hearing Tr. Welcome back! Conclusion: In conclusion, both devices come at a close tie and both are recommended for productivity users who need a business tablet. Id. After remand to the Federal Circuit, the Federal Circuit held that "the trial court should consider the parties' arguments in light of the trial record and determine what additional proceedings, if any, are needed. Apple argued that Samsung had waived its right to seek a new trial on the article of manufacture issue, that the jury instructions given were not legally erroneous, and that no evidence in the record supported Samsung's proposed jury instruction. . 3522 ("Apple Opening Br."). J. L. & TECH. Apple and Samsung have finally settled a seven-year-long patent dispute, bringing to an end the long-running battle over the design of their rival smartphones. "An error in instructing the jury in a civil case requires reversal unless the error is more probably than not harmless." Casetext, Inc. and Casetext are not a law firm and do not provide legal advice. Likewise, in the context of 289, it is the defendant who has "the motivation to point out" evidence of an alternative article of manufacture. The Court also ordered the parties to identify the relevant article of manufacture for each of the patents at issue in the instant case, as well as evidence in the record supporting their assertions of the relevant article of manufacture and their assertions of the total profit for each article of manufacture. Indeed, Samsung's test does not produce a logical result when applied to the very product that the U.S. Supreme Court identified as an easy case: a dinner plate. iPhones have usually enjoyed more praise than their Samsung counterparts in terms of sheer photo quality, image consistency, and video quality. 1970) (listing fifteen factors informing reasonable royalty calculations in utility patent cases). L. REV. On September 28, 2017, the parties submitted cross-responses. The factors that the United States identified were: Notwithstanding the parties' apparent general agreement with the United States' proposed test during oral argument before the U.S. Supreme Court, both parties now advocate different tests, which only partially overlap with the United States' proposed test. Of Cal., Inc. v. Constr. The Court now turns to the four-factor test proposed by the United States. Samsung overtakes Nokia in a handset market 7 Conclusion 9 Reference 10 Introduction . More specifically, a judgment may be altered based on an erroneous jury instruction by a party if "(1) [the party] made a proper and timely objection to the jury instructions, (2) those instructions were legally erroneous, (3) the errors had prejudicial effect, and (4) [the party] requested alternative instructions that would have remedied the error." Samsung disagrees. Supreme Court Decision, 137 S. Ct. at 433 (quoting 24 Stat. ECF Nos. 2014). Specifically, Samsung contends that excluding Proposed Jury Instruction 42.1 and giving Final Jury Instruction 54 led the jury to believe that the entire phone was the only possible article of manufacture under 289. Though Samsung defended itself and the injunction was reduced to German markets, it was still a big win for Apple. With respect to multicomponent products, the United States argued that in some instances, "the finished product as sold in commerce is most naturally viewed as the article to which the patented design is 'applied.'" Samsung's argument that the face of the statute lacks an explicit burden-shifting scheme does not mandate a different result. . . In the October 12, 2017 hearing, Samsung conceded that evidence of how a product is sold would be relevant to determining the amount of total profit on the relevant article of manufacture. See Jury Instructions at 15-16, Columbia Sportswear N. ECF No. Samsung cites three categories of evidence to show that the jury could have found an article of manufacture that was less than the entirety of each infringing Samsung phone. Case No. The '647 patent discloses a system and method for de-tecting structures such as phone numbers, addresses, and dates in documents, and then linking actions or com-mands to those structures. The U.S. Supreme Court then held that "[t]he term 'article of manufacture,' as used in 289, encompasses both a product sold to a consumer and a component of that product." None of the cases that Apple cites in support of this argument apply the "superior knowledge" burden-shifting principle to an analogous situation in the intellectual property context, let alone a patent case. (internal quotation marks omitted)). ECF No. UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA SAN JOSE DIVISION. 2009) ("The burden of proving damages falls on the patentee. Supreme Court Decision, 137 S. Ct. at 434. Apple Opening Br. Back in April 2011, Apple had filed a lawsuit accusing Samsung of copying the "look and feel" of the iPhone when the Korean company created its Galaxy line of phones. The Negotiation Journal Wants to Hear From You! 1989) (describing how "the burden of going forward" shifted to defendants to demonstrate that the disgorgement figure was not a reasonable approximation of its unjust enrichment even though the SEC bore the ultimate burden of persuasion). Second, Samsung argued that "the profits awarded [for design patent infringement] should have been limited to the infringing 'article of manufacture,' not the entire infringing product." 2013. The burden then shifts to the party opposing the new trial "to demonstrate 'that it is more probable than not that the jury would have reached the same verdict' had it been properly instructed." at 9. See ECF No. The plaintiff also bears a burden of production on both issues. The Rivalry Inception of Samsung and Apple, How Samsung and Apple Turned From Friends to Foe, Biggest Media Companies in the United States, India on the Rise: Achieving a $5 Trillion Economy, 5 Tips to Supercharge Your Manufacturing Startup, How Cricbuzz Became the Biggest Cricketing News Sensation, 21 Profitable Business Ideas for Couples to Start this Valentine's Day, 2022 - A Remarkable Year for Indian Startups, Rupee vs. Dollar - Journey Since Independence, Spy on your Competitors (Use code ST30 for 30% off). Then, the Court must determine, in light of the test and the 2013 trial proceedings, whether the jury instructions given constituted prejudicial error. We all have that friend who is an ardent fan of apple, and we all have got a friend too who is always in love with Samsung. 3490-2 at 17. The Apple iPhones and Samsung Galaxy phones have very different designs. By July 2012, the two companies were still tangled in more than 50 lawsuits around the globe, with billions of dollars in damages claimed between them. However, the U.S. Supreme Court "decline[d] to lay out a test for the first step of the 289 damages inquiry in the absence of adequate briefing by the parties." 543 F.3d at 678, 681, 683. Gershon, R 2013, 'Digital media innovation and the Apple iPad: Three . See Henry Hanger & Display Fixture Corp. of Am. In 2007, Apple took over the market with the launch of iPhone, a product that rapidly gained popularity due to its large and multi-touch user interface. Comme il s'agit d'un smartphone haut de gamme, il fallait videmment s . The document stated that Samsung will pay 30$ on selling every smartphone and 40$ on every tablet. Id. Moreover, the longer they spend fighting each other, the more contentious and uncooperative they are likely to become. at 994-96. Finally, Apple concedes that it bears the ultimate burden of persuasion on the issue of damages. Total bill for Samsung: $1.05 billion. See ECF No. They released commercials that defame other pioneer brands openly. When the system detects a Apple argues that such a shift in burden is consistent with 289's disgorgement-like remedy, because in other disgorgement contexts the defendant bears the burden to prove any deductions. The precedent is already set, however, and Apple is likely to use it to go after other Android phone makers. Your email address will not be published. In Samsung's view, the text of the statute is determinative. 3524 ("Samsung Response"). 2017) (unpublished) ("Federal Circuit Remand Decision"). Soon with a good culture and with government assistance it entered domains like sugar refining, media, textiles, and insurance and became a success. Id. at 10-11. In sum, the Court finds that the jury instructions given at trial did not accurately reflect the law and that the instructions prejudiced Samsung by precluding the jury from considering whether the relevant article of manufacture for the purpose of 289 was something other than the entire phone. After trial, Samsung moved for judgment as a matter of law. Apple Opening Br. ECF No. The Federal Circuit noted that this theory essentially advocated "apportionment," which would "require[] [the patentee] to show what portion of the infringer's profit, or of his own lost profit, was due to the design and what portion was due to the article itself." 3509 at 27 n.5. 3509. 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