Forget Samsung: Jury Foreman Suggests Apple Should Sue Google, Instead
Apple might have been awarded $119.6 million of the $2.2 billion it chased Samsung for in court, but according to the jury foreman for the recently concluded trial, the Cupertino, Calif. company should be going after Google for patent damages rather than handset makers like the South Korea-based Samsung.
The news comes in a report from The Wall Street Journal (via 9to5mac), which cited comments from Tom Dunham, an ex-IBM employee. Dunham acted as jury foreman in the trial:
“If you really feel that Google is the cause behind this, as I think everybody has observed, then don’t beat around the bush,” said Tom Dunham, whose job at IBM was to oversee developers expected to file patents. “Let the courts decide. But a more direct approach may be something to think about.”
The comment came following the recent conclusion of Apple and Samsung’s second major patent trial. As we explained a few days ago, a jury found Samsung guilty of infringing a handful of Apple patents, and ruled that the South Korean company should pay Cupertino almost $120 million in damages.
However, as 9to5mac rightly notes, of the five Apple patents in question only one was “Samsung-specific.” The rest related to Google’s Android, rather than to Samsung-made hardware.
In court, Samsung indeed argued that Google should rather be blamed for infringing Apple’s iOS-related patents; if Cupertino takes Dunham’s advice, it could be another major patent trial is on the horizon – this time between Apple and Google.
We’ll keep you updated with further information as we receive it.
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