by Dennis Crouch
In the Federal Circuit’s most recent Apple v. Samsung decision, the court has, inter alia, invalidated two of Apple’s asserted patents and held the third was not infringed – despite a jury verdict to the opposite.
At the district court, the jury found that three of Apple’s touch-screen patents (covering slide-to-unlock, spell correction, and automated data-structure detection) infringed by Samsung devices (resulting in $119.6 million in damages)[1] and that one Samsung patent (covering particular photo/video operations) was infringed (resulting in only $158,400 in damages).[2] This case is parallel to (but entirely separate from) the iPhone design patent case now pending before the Supreme Court that resulted in a $600,000,000 judgement for Apple.
Invalidity: Samsung had argued that the slide-to-unlock and automatic spell correction claims were invalid as obvious. In support of the patents, Apple presented evidence of copying, commercial success, industry praise, and long-felt but unresolved need — all as secondary considerations of nonobvoiusness.
[S]econdary considerations must be considered in evaluating the obviousness of a claimed invention. But weak secondary considerations generally do not overcome a strong prima facie case of obviousness. This is particularly true when an invention involves nothing more than the predictable use of prior art elements according to their established functions.
(internal quotation marks and citations removed).
The Federal Circuit walked through Apple’s evidence – pointing out its weakness:
- Copying: What was copied was not the iPhone unlock mechanism in its entirety, but only using a fixed starting and ending point for the slide — features shown in the prior art.
- Industry Praise: Evidence of approval by Apple fans—who may or may not have been skilled in the art—during the presentation of the iPhone is not legally sufficient.
- Long-Felt Need: Apple’s contention here is nothing more than an unsupported assertion that Apple’s method is better and more “intuitive” than previous methods. This is not sufficient to demonstrate the existence of a long-felt but unmet need.
- Commercial Success: “[E]vidence that customers prefer to purchase a device with a slide-to-unlock capacity does not show a nexus [to the claimed invention] when the evidence does not show what alternative device consumers were comparing that device to. For example, it is not clear whether the alternative device had any unlocking feature. A reasonable jury could therefore not find a nexus between the patented feature and the commercial success of the iPhone.
Collectively, the Federal Circuit found this evidence of secondary conditions too weak to overcome the evidence of obviousness based upon the prior art documents. As such, the appellate panel reversed the jury verdict and lower court denial of Judgment as a Matter of Law — now holding the patent claims invalid as obvious.
Infringement: Apple’s automated data-structure detection claims cover the process of automatically identifying items in within text such as telephone numbers or dates. The claims require an “analyzer server” that detects the structures. That patent claim term had been previously construed by the Federal Circuit and this narrow construction was adopted by the district court – although not until the last day of trial. However, Apple’s expert testified that the Samsung device infringed under this narrow definition (Samsung’s expert disagreed) and the jury sided with Apple. On appeal, however, the Federal Circuit reversed – finding that no reasonable jury could have found infringement based upon the testimony:
[Apple’s expert] testimony is not sufficient evidence to allow a jury to conclude that the Samsung software met the “analyzer server” limitation. Our previous construction required more than just showing that accused software was stored in a different part of the memory and was developed separately. We found that the “analyzer server” limitation is a separate structural limitation and must be a “server routine,” consistent with the “plain meaning of ‘server’.” That is, it must run separately from the program it serves. . . . Apple could point to no testimony where its expert stated that the library programs run separately.
Thus, the holding of infringement was reversed and Apple’s $120 million award has vanished.
The court did uphold Samsung’s win, but that award is only $158,400 in damages. In addition, the court awarded appellate costs to Samsung.
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[1] Apple alleged infringement of five U.S. patents: U.S. Patent Nos. 5,946,647 (the ’647 patent), 6,847,959 (the ’959 patent), 7,761,414 (the ’414 patent), 8,046,721 (the ’721 patent), and 8,074,172 (the ’172 patent). The jury found infringement of the ’647 patent, the ’721 patent, and the ’172 patent but no infringement of the other two.
[2] The Jury found that Apple infringed Samsung’s U.S. Patent No. 6,226,449 (the ’449 patent) but not U.S. Patent No. 5,579,239 (the ’239 patent).