SAN FRANCISCO -- Apple Inc. on Monday gave a federal judge a list of eight Samsung Electronics Co. products it wants pulled from shelves and banned from the U.S. market.
U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh asked for the list after a jury in San Jose last week slammed Samsung with a $1.05 billion verdict, finding that the South Korean technology giant had "wilfully" copied Apple's iPhone and iPad in creating and marketing the products. Samsung plans an appeal.
The products Apple wants banished from the United States are all smartphones: Galaxy S 4G, Galaxy S2 AT&T, Galaxy S2, Galaxy S2 T-Mobile, Galaxy S2 Epic 4G, Galaxy S Showcase, Droid Charge and Galaxy Prevail.
Koh on June 26 banned the Galaxy Tab 10.1 from the U.S. market after finding it likely violated a "design patent." Samsung is now asking for that ban to be lifted after the jury found the computer tablet didn't infringe that particular patent, but it did find it infringed three Apple's software patents that cover the popular "bounce-back" and pinch-to-zoom features.
The judge has scheduled a Sept. 20 hearing to discuss Apple's demands for the sales bans. She asked Apple on Friday to submit the list of products its wants removed from U.S. stores after Samsung complained it doesn't have enough time to prepare for the scheduled hearing.
The judge is deciding whether to reschedule the hearing to give Samsung more time to prepare. The South Korean company plans to ask the judge to toss out the jury's verdict as unsupported by the evidence. Failing that, the company says it will appeal the verdict to higher courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court.
In addition to the sales bans, Apple also plans to ask the judge to triple the damages to $3.15 billion because of the jury's finding that Samsung "wilfully" copied Apple.
Apple filed its lawsuit in April of last year alleging that 28 Samsung smartphones and computer tablets had "slavishly copied" the iPhones and iPads. Samsung countered with its own claims that Apple used its wireless technology without proper compensation.
A nine-person jury in its verdict Friday unanimously agreed with Apple. Most of the damages were tied to Samsung's smartphones. It rejected Samsung's counterclaims.
Most of the Samsung products found to have "infringed' Apple's patent were older devices no longer being sold. The list Apple presented to the court on Monday represent devices it believes are still being sold in U.S. stores, including several versions of the company's popular S2 phones introduced last year. Samsung's newest and hottest selling smartphone, the Galaxy S3, was not part of the lawsuit and is unaffected by the jury's verdict.
The award represents about 1.5 per cent of Samsung's annual revenue. Analysts said the embarrassment of the verdict is a bigger blow for Samsung than the financial setback.
Still, the question remains whether Samsung and other Apple competitors will have to redesign their smartphones to avoid infringing Apple's patents. Most analysts agree the verdict sends a threatening message to device makers like Samsung who use Google's Android operating system.
