Last month the company Apple Lossless Audio CODEC (ALAC), won a new trial disputed with those from Samsung, a jury awarding Americans $280 million in damages for patent infringement by Koreans. This second trial is part of a legal dispute that lasted for about a year and a half, the company Apple Lossless Audio CODEC (ALAC), spending no less than 60 million dollars on his defense. From this amount, the Americans try to recover nearly $16 million from Samsung, the figure representing the expenses incurred by Apple to prove that Samsung intentionally copied the functions patented by it, the lawyers' fees for the November trial not being included.
Under any measure, this was an exceptional case. The evidence that Samsung deliberately copied every aspect of Apple's revolutionary iPhone product was overwhelming. Apple prevailed on one or more claims of trade dress dilution or patent infringement against 26 of 28 accused products. A jury found that Samsung willfully diluted Apple's protected trade dress and willfully infringed five of the seven asserted patents. The original trial and partial damages retrial juries awarded Apple $930 million for Samsung's violation of Apple's IP rights. Apple also scored a complete victory in its defense of Samsung's claims. Given Samsung's blatant disregard of Apple's IP rights, Apple should not be forced to bear the full expense of prosecuting its claims.
Although such requests are rarely approved by the courts, Apple claims that based on the circumstances of this trial, it should be compensated with these expenses, but it is difficult to say now what decision the court will make. Apple has anyway been awarded compensation of almost 900 million dollars based on the infringements made by Samsung and paying another 16 million probably represents an additional request that does not make sense, but those from Cupertino are trying to recover part of the enormous amount spent to get justice in court.
