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Samsung Asks For New Trial on Apple's '381 Patent - New Evidence Has Been Discovered ~pj - Updated 4Xs

By Pamela Jones et al.

Samsung has just filed a motion for a new trial on liability in Apple v. Samsung with respect to Apple's '381 patent. That's the bounce back patent, which was used by Apple in the first trial in California, and the jury ruled that Samsung infringed that patent with 18 products. As you know, the two companies are currently in the pre-retrial motion stage leading up to a retrial on the question of damages only, scheduled to begin in November.

Meanwhile, the reexamination process continued at the USPTO, with Apple getting them to overrule their earlier final determination that claim 19 of the '381 patent, the claim at issue in this litigation, was not valid due to prior art. And here comes Samsung with the incredible news that it just learned on June 12th that during the most recent phase of the reexamination process at the USPTO, Apple narrowed its patent so much to get it to survive the process that Samsung's products no longer infringe (which Samsung never thought they did anyhow):

The eighteen products at issue in this motion are all products for which the jury found infringement of the '381 patent and awarded damages. The Court ordered a new trial on damages as to all of the products at issue in this motion except the Fascinate, Galaxy S 4G, Galaxy S II (AT&T), Galaxy Tab 10.1(WiFi), Mesmerize and Vibrant. Dkt. 2271. This motion is based on "newly discovered evidence" because Samsung learned from PTO records made publicly available on June 12, 2013, that Apple had successfully advocated a new claim construction of the only asserted claim - Claim 19 - and significantly narrowed its scope in connection with reexamination proceedings before the PTO to avoid having this claim rejected due to the Lira reference. Under this claim construction, the Captivate, Continuum, Droid Charge, Epic 4G, Exhibit 4G, Fascinate, Galaxy Prevail, Galaxy S 4G, Galaxy S II (AT&T), Galaxy Tab, Galaxy Tab 10.1 (WiFi), Gem, Indulge, Infuse 4G, Mesmerize, Nexus S 4G, Replenish and Vibrant cannot possibly infringe Claim 19 of the '381 patent.

Wow. Why would Samsung have to find this in papers filed with the USPTO instead of from Apple just telling them? In any case, Samsung argues newly discovered evidence. The Lira patent is the prior art that caused the USPTO to reject claim 19 earlier.

Full post as published by Groklaw on July 09, 2013 (boomark / email).