Samsung Clears First Hurdle Against Apple

In the first ruling from the District Court in the Apple-Samsung smartphone patent infringement case, following the remitting of the case to the District Court by the Federal Circuit to reassess the damages previously awarded to Apple, Samsung have moved a step closer to their desire for a full retrial to reassess the damages.

Apple had contended that Samsung had waived their right to a reassessment of what should be considered as the "article of manufacture" when assessing the damages and so should not be granted permission for a retrial. Previously the damages were calculated using the whole smartphone as the article of manufacture, leading to particularly high damages of $548m being awarded to Apple by the Court of Appeals. However it was this method of assessing the damages that the Supreme Court had found to be incorrect.