Edible Apple

In a post-trial ruling yesterday, US District Court Judge Lucy Koh upheld Apple’s $1.05 billion verdict against Samsung but ruled that the South Korean tech giant did not willfully infringe upon Apple’s patents. Consequently, Apple is not entitled to the 3x damages it was seeking.

Koh explained in part:

Moreover, Apple has failed to cite any evidence of actual knowledge of infringement on Samsung’s part. Instead, Apple relies on evidence that Samsung purposely imitated Apple’s designs. Evidence of copying, however, is not evidence of infringement or knowledge thereof.

Given that, as explained above, it would have been reasonable for Samsung to believe that the D’087 Patent was limited in scope, Apple’sevidence that Samsung engaged in some copying of Apple’s designs does not establish that Samsung knew or should have known it was infringing. Rather, Samsung may have believed that any elements of Apple’s designs that it was copying were not protected by the limited scope of theD’087 Patent. Apple’s evidence thus does little to establish that Samsung knew or should have known it was infringing. Accordingly, the Court finds that the jury’s determination that Samsung’sinfringement was not willful as a subjective matter is supported by substantial evidence in the record.

It wasn’t all bad news for Apple, though. Koh did uphold the original damages award while also denying Samsung’s request for a new trial, noting that “the trial was fairly conducted, with uniform time limits and rules of evidence applied on both sides.”