Apple won three significant courtroom battles against Samsung this past week in California and down in Florida, it seems Motorola's eyes were bigger than its stomach. Also, Cupertino lawyers have a prett-ay, prett-ay, prett-ay good week as they prep for some major upcoming U.S. lawsuits. Join us for another week of Law & Apple as we will lay the law happenings.
As the super summer blockbuster trial between Apple and Samsung, scheduled for July 30, creeps toward us, the pre-trial manueverings of the two companies is getting even more interesting. A series of developments over the last few days seem to significantly favor Cupertino, and the lawyers must be excited about Apple's chances in the courtroom.
Strike three! But we are still going to trial.
Judge Lucy Koh ordered Apple and Samsung to narrow the scope of the trial, and last Thursday issued a ruling on those attempts to slim down. Although Judge Koh agreed with Samsung that still more narrowing is required, she made a few points that were very favorable to Apple. Primarily, Judge Koh granted that if Apple removes claims from the case in order to keep things on schedule, those claims can be reasserted in a later trial. Samsung was hoping for dimissal with prejudice that would have basically killed the claims forever. Score one for Cupertino.
Last December, Judge Koh denied Apple's request for a preliminary injunction against four Samsung products. Cupertino immediately appealed to the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC), and on Monday a ruling was issued. The CAFC agreed with Judge Koh regarding two iPhone design patents as well as a software patent, but agreed with Apple that one design patent (U.S. Patent No. D504,889) is valid. This patent was specifically targeting the Galaxy Tab 10.1, and it seems likely now that an injunction will be issued against this device. Samsung should be able to modify the device quickly to keep in on the shelves, but a differentation between Apple and Samsung products is what this lawsuit is all about, so score two for Cupertino.
Finally, Judge Koh ruled this past Monday on a motion Samsung filed to dismiss Apple's antitrust counterclaims. Samsung got Judge Koh to toss out a couple of the unlikely claims, but for the most part, Apple's claims were upheld. These FRAND claims by Apple are the rock solid defense Cupertino needs to combat any success Samsung has in the upcoming trial; they basically say that if Apple did infringe on any Samsung products, it was because Samsung did not uphold contract obligations to disclose and license those patents to Apple. As Florian Mueller of FOSS Patents put it, "I'm sure Samsung was hoping for a much better outcome. It won nothing against Apple's antitrust claims, and very little against the breach-of-contract claims."
It will be extremely unlikely now that Samsung will succeed with any infringement claims against Apple in this trial, and you can score a third huge win for Cupertino right there.
Down in Florida, Motorola is learning an expensive lesson the local alligators could have taught them for free: don't bite off more than you can chew.
In November of 2010, Motorola filed a lawsuit against Apple that was scheduled to go to trial later this year. Motorola, with its pending sale to Google, would like this trial to happen as soon as possible. However, after the lawsuit was filed, Motorola wanted to add six additional claims against Apple regarding the iPhone 4S and the iCloud. The original judge in the case, Judge Ursula Ungaro, ruled it was too late to add the claims, so in January of this year Motorola filed a second lawsuit against apple.
Dude. You need to chew your food before you take another bite!
That may not have been the best move. Judge Robert N. Scola, the federal judge now presiding over both of these cases, ruled that "the parties have shown a complete inability to agree upon anything and it is frustrating the progress of these cases" and decided to consolidate both cases and move the trial to April of 2014. The case is now terribly bloated with 12 Apple patents, 12 Motorola patents and the addition of a third defendant (HTC), and the new trial date is later than even Apple wanted. This is a win for Apple, and now Motorola has lost any realistic chance to enforce any of its high-priced patents against Apple in the near future.
Hello, Motorola? Google is on the line -- they have some questions about this $12.5 billion they were planning to pay for your patents...
Adrian writes the weekly Law & Apple column for MacLife.com. Follow him on Twitter, or subscribe to him on Facebook.
