The trial between Apple and Samsung, initiated in 2012, could be re-judged in part, if an American court decides that it must re-establish the amount to be paid as compensation. Yesterday, the decision was made that the case between Apple and Samsung be sent back to a lower court, which will decide if it will partially re-judge the case to determine the damages again.
The process initiated in 2012 also ended then with a win for Apple and Samsung being forced to pay 1 billion dollars in compensation. Of course, Samsung contested this decision, and after 4 years of legal disputes, it seems that part of this problem will be restarted from the beginning, with no end in sight.
The decision to resend the case to a lower court comes from the Supreme Court of Justice in the USA, which took the decision to award the Samsung company in a formulated complaint. The Supreme Court of Justice has not determined whether Samsung's infringement affects an Apple product in its entirety, or only some component parts, so now a lower court will have to do it.
From this point, we will talk about a new long trial in which the lawyers of both parties will have to support their cases in order to obtain victory for the company they represent. Those from Apple could lose more money than they lost after the last retrial, over 100 million dollars disappearing from the initial decision.
"Trial courts are well suited for this type of analysis, so it makes sense that the Federal Circuit — rather than create a procedure from whole-cloth — would like to see how the trial court approaches the problem," said Case Collard, a partner at law firm Dorsey & Whitney. On remand, the trial court should consider the parties' arguments in light of the trial record and determine what additional proceedings, if any, are needed," it said. "If the court determines that a new damages trial is necessary, it will have the opportunity to set forth a test for identifying the relevant article of manufacture for purposes of [Section 289 of the Patent Act of 1952] and to apply that test to this houses."
