A federal judge appeared ready Thursday to trim millions from a $1.05 billion jury verdict Apple Inc. won over Samsung Electronics this summer as she urged the top two smartphone companies to settle their myriad legal actions around the world.
U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh said she would issue a series of rulings over the next several weeks resolving the legal issues raised at the hearing Thursday.
Samsung is seeking a new trial or a reduction of the verdict that resulted from a lawsuit Apple filed in 2011. Apple, on the other hand, urged the judge to add millions more to the award and permanently ban U.S. sales of eight Samsung smartphone models a jury in August said illegally used Apple technology.
Koh gave no indication on how she would rule on the sales ban request.
Apple filed a second lawsuit this year, alleging that Samsung's newer products are unfairly using Apple's technology. That's set for trial in 2014. In addition, the two companies are locked in legal battles in several other countries.
"I think it's time for global peace," Koh said at an end of a nearly four-hour hearing in San Jose.
Lawyers for each company responded by casting aspersions on the other side.
Apple lawyer Harold McElhinny claimed that Samsung willfully made a business decision to copy Apple's iPad and iPhone, and he called the jury's $1.05 billion award a slap on the wrist. McElhinny said Apple intends to keep fighting Samsung in court until it changes its business ways.
Samsung lawyer Charles Verhoeven responded that Apple was attempting to "compete through the courthouse instead of the marketplace." He said Apple wants to tie up Samsung in courts around the world rather than competing with it head-on.
In the third quarter of 2012, Samsung sold 55 million smartphones to Apple's 23.6 million worldwide, representing 32.5 percent of the market for Samsung compared with Apple's 14 percent.
Koh is considering Samsung's demand for the verdict to be wiped out and for a new trial to be held.
One of its arguments is that jury foreman Velvin Hogan committed misconduct when he didn't divulge he had been sued by his former employer, Seagate Technology, in 1993. Samsung is a large investor in Seagate.
Source: http://feeds.sfgate.com/click.phdo?i=5712a634103864008eaca910f93a22f1
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