6:00 PM – Samsung recently lost its retrial case against Apple. The Cupertino giant was awarded $290 million on top of the $600 million it had already won from Samsung. You would think that by now, Samsung would try to move on from the loss, however they are going after Apple again. This time though, they are trying to base a new case on racial prejudice.
In a new report from FOSS Patents, Samsung’s lawyers are now asking Judge Lucy Koh’s permission for a retrial. Samsung claims that Apple only won because it used sneaky, underhanded tactics to gain the jury’s attention. The Korean giants lawyers point out the racial baiting that occurred during the trial where Apple’s lawyers compared Samsung to other Asian vendors that put several American TV manufacturers into bankruptcy. How? They did it by flooding the market with low-cost television sets that were nearly identical to domestic products.
Samsung’s attorneys write that “Samsung respectfully requests a new trial based on Apple’s repeated references to Samsung’s revenues from all infringing products, as opposed to those found to infringe upon Apple’s design patents, and blatant appeals to racial, ethnic and national prejudice.” They continue on to say that “throughout the trial, Apple portrayed Samsung as a foreign threat to the local and national economy… Apple’s cynical appeal to racial, ethnic and national sentiment has no place in our system of justice and warrants a new trial.”
Florian Müeller of FOSS Patents believes that Samsung only did this for appeals sake. It’s unlikely that Judge Koh will grant Samsung a retrial of the case. Although this may not stop Samsung from taking the case to the Supreme Court. Knowing Samsung, anything is possible at this point. It’s worth mentioning that while Samsung did lost, credit should be given to them for the continuous fight against Apple.
