The retrial to determine damages Samsung owes Apple for mobile device patent infringement started on Tuesday, and the day was spent selecting a Jury. With that out of the way, both sides can move forward with their opening statements Wednesday morning.
Apple and Samsung to offer opening arguments in patent infringement damages retrial
After spending the day screening potential jurors, Apple and Samsung eventually settled on six women and two men, according to Reuters. The Jury will sit through testimony and evidence for about a week before the case is handed over to them for a verdict.
The two companies are squaring off in court to determine the damages amount Apple is owed for part of the win it scored last year. At the time, the Jury awarded Apple over US$1 billion in damages, but $365 million of that was set aside due to improper procedures when calculating the value.
That dollar amount relates to a specific list of Samsung devices, and this new Jury will determine if Apple is owed more, less, or the same amount of money for those infringing products. The remaining part of that $1 billion figure remains and won't change unless Samsung manages to win an appeal.
Once this Jury returns with its verdict, Samsung will have to deal with a follow up headache related to the case over how it obtained and then used confidential licensing agreements between Apple and Nokia. The company's outside law firm, Quinn Emmanuel, uploaded the documents to Samsung's servers even though they were intended only for special witnesses in last year's case. Samsung executives then allegedly used those documents to gain the upper hand in their own licensing talks with Nokia.
A hearing in the documents leak is scheduled for December, and considering how frustrated the court is with Samsung, it may not go well. The expectation now is that Samsung, Quinn Emmanuel, and possibly some Samsung executives will face court imposed sanctions.
The retrial that's under way won't determine whether or not Samsung is guilty of patent infringement; that was already determined in 2012. Instead, the Jury will focus on just how much money Samsung does owe Apple in damages. Regardless of what the Jury decides, it's a safe bet we'll be seeing an appeal at least on the remaining part from the original damages award.