Apple and Samsung were back in the Federal Court of Australia in Sydney this morning, to continue their ‘discussions’ over the fate of Samsung’s iPad-challenging Galaxy Tab 10.1.As we predicted, it is being reported in the Fairfax press today that Samsung has indeed already complied with its undertaking to provide Apple with three samples of its proposed Australian product. However, while Samsung had apparently been planning a new launch date of 12 September 2011, it seems that this may now be further delayed to permit a more substantive hearing to take place in relation to Apple’s request for an injunction, sometime in late September.
Unsurprisingly, Samsung has also indicated its intention to countersue (as most defendants to patent infringement do), claiming that Apple’s patents are invalid. Samsung has also apparently threatened Apple with a further lawsuit alleging that the iPad infringes Samsung’s patents.
We remain of the opinion that Apple is highly unlikely to obtain a preliminary injunction against Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1. A more-detailed hearing will almost certainly reveal firstly that the issues in the patent infringement and validity cases are too complex for any clear view to be reached in interlocutory proceedings, and that the tablet market is highly competitive such that the harm to Samsung in erroneously granting a preliminary injunction would exceed the harm to Apple of not granting an injunction. Apple will, in any event, entitled to claim compensation from Samsung for all intervening sales if it were ultimately successful in an infringement claim.
A further hearing is scheduled to take place at 2.15pm, AEST, to settle the timetable for the next stage of the proceedings. We will provide a further update as the dust clears in the next day or so.
Before You Go…
Thank you for reading this article to the end – I hope you enjoyed it, and found it useful. Almost every article I post here takes a few hours of my time to research and write, and I have never felt the need to ask for anything in return.
But now – for the first, and perhaps only, time – I am asking for a favour. If you are a patent attorney, examiner, or other professional who is experienced in reading and interpreting patent claims, I could really use your help with my PhD research. My project involves applying artificial intelligence to analyse patent claim scope systematically, with the goal of better understanding how different legal and regulatory choices influence the boundaries of patent protection. But I need data to train my models, and that is where you can potentially assist me. If every qualified person who reads this request could spare just a couple of hours over the next few weeks, I could gather all the data I need.
The task itself is straightforward and web-based – I am asking participants to compare pairs of patent claims and evaluate their relative scope, using an online application that I have designed and implemented over the past few months. No special knowledge is required beyond the ability to read and understand patent claims in technical fields with which you are familiar. You might even find it to be fun!
There is more information on the project website, at claimscopeproject.net. In particular, you can read:
- a detailed description of the study, its goals and benefits; and
- instructions for the use of the online claim comparison application.
Thank you for considering this request!
Mark Summerfield
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