【2004 Archives】

"Never say die" seems a fitting motto for Samsung's legal team.

Samsung004 ArchivesApple may soon face each other in court once again to battle over how much money Samsung owes Apple for patent infringement.

In a ruling picked up by Foss Patents, Judge Lucy Koh declared that Apple and Samsung would head back to court with roughly $400 million on the line, unless the companies decide to settle it outside the system.

Apple won a $1 billion judgment off Samsung back in 2012 for several patent infringements having to do with the iPhone. But while those patent infringements still stand, the amount of money Samsung owes Apple has steadily tapered from that original 10-figure judgment.

Samsung did pay Apple $548 million in late 2015, but the company's legal team believed it had a chance to reduce that sum, and a Supreme Court ruling the following year proved it does indeed have a shot.

Courts initially determined Samsung violated Apple patents while building its own smartphone, and, originally, Samsung had been ordered to give Apple the profits from those phones. But the Supreme Court said this thinking was mistaken. Instead, the court ruled that Samsung should only have to pay Apple for the parts of its phone that violated Apple's patents.

Apple had then tried to tell Koh that, hey, sure, maybe the original ruling wasn't totally accurate, but it's correct enough that we don't need to rehash the $548 million payment. Koh disagreed, and now about $400 million of that $548 million (originally $1 billion) is at stake.

The two companies now have until Oct. 25 to offer a possible retrial date.

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