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Google Covering Defense Costs and Damage Awards for Four Patents in Apple/Samsung Case

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Google is covering lawyer fees and potential damage awards with regards to four patents in the ongoing Apple/Samsung patent case, according to a report from Re/code, quoting deposition testimony from a Google attorney that Apple introduced in court today.

Google's contractual obligations to defend Samsung relate to a "Mobile Application Distribution Agreement" between the two companies related to the distribution of Google applications, including Gmail on Samsung's Android devices. Samsung called several Google employees as witnesses as part of its defense.

The case between Apple and Samsung is seen by many as a proxy for the larger battle between Google and Apple over the company's respective mobile operating systems.

apple_samsung_logos.jpg
Apple played deposition testimony from Google lawyer James Mccoun, who verified e-mail in which Google agreed to provide partial or full indemnity with regards to four patents as well as to take over defense of those claims.

A Samsung representative said he could not immediately say which if any claims in the case for which Google is in fact providing the defense and indemnity.
Click to expand...
Yesterday, Samsung argued that, if it lost at trial, it would only owe Apple $40 million in damages, substantially less than the $2 billion that Apple says it is owed for infringement of five of its patents.

Article Link: Google Covering Defense Costs and Damage Awards for Four Patents in Apple/Samsung Case
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2014/04/22/google-defense-costs/
C

camnchar

macrumors 6502
Jan 26, 2006
434
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Lawyer fees AND potential damages? Didn't Google send Samsung a memo telling them they were copying Apple too closely? It seems like this isn't an Android problem but more of a Samsung problem.
 
Oletros

Oletros

macrumors 603
Jul 27, 2009
6,002
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Premià de Mar
camnchar said:
Lawyer fees AND potential damages? Didn't Google send Samsung a memo telling them they were copying Apple too closely? It seems like this isn't an Android problem but more of a Samsung problem.
Click to expand...

The claims Google will cover are related to Android, are not part of Samsung implementation
 
M

MikeAnd

Suspended
Jan 8, 2008
105
112
Interesting...

Yesterday, Samsung argued that, if it lost at trial, it would only owe Apple $40 million in damages, substantially less than the $2 billion that Apple says it is owed for infringement of five of its patents.
Click to expand...

It's an open secret that Samsung is trying to decrease its dependence on Google Android (as distinct from forked Android/Android AOSP) – they'd be idiots not to do so. If they were smart, they'd play up the potential damages for the Google-covered patents and try to maximize the payout that Google would have to make.

The bottom line is that Samsung is the only Android OEM making big profits. Thus anything that raises the cost of Google Android hurts their competitors much more than it hurts them, because only Samsung can afford any margin hits. In the long run, it would protect their Android market share and make it that much easier for them to fork Android or go with Tizen.
 
kdarling

kdarling

macrumors P6
Jun 9, 2007
17,373
5,924
First university coding class = 47 years ago
camnchar said:
Lawyer fees AND potential damages? Didn't Google send Samsung a memo telling them they were copying Apple too closely? It seems like this isn't an Android problem but more of a Samsung problem.
Click to expand...

This trial has nothing to do with design choices like rounded icons, which is the kind of thing that Google tried to get Samsung to avoid.

This trial is about internal unseen code methods, written by Google.

It's common for the source of such methods to protect their licensees. Microsoft publicly announced that they would defend anyone licensing their Windows phone code, for example.
 
Iconoclysm

Iconoclysm

macrumors 68040
May 13, 2010
3,121
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Washington, DC
apolloa said:
Haha haha haha haha seriously? A major AMERICAN corporation is totally Anti American.... hahaha

And Apple is one of the most anti consumer companies around. What with its way to force you to upgrade at maximum cost.
Click to expand...

Uhh, many American corporations are "anti-American"...Apple isn't exactly pro-American either but they're at least trying to bring work back to the US.

No major PC manufacturer out there gives you cheap upgrades, not a single one.

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kdarling said:
This trial has nothing to do with design choices like rounded icons, which is the kind of thing that Google tried to get Samsung to avoid.

This trial is about internal unseen code methods, written by Google.

It's common for the source of such methods to protect their licensees. Microsoft publicly announced that they would defend anyone licensing their Windows phone code, for example.
Click to expand...

In Microsoft's case, they do not allow the OEM's to mess around with the OS the way Android did/does.
 
S

samcraig

macrumors P6
Jun 22, 2009
16,779
41,982
USA
camnchar said:
Lawyer fees AND potential damages? Didn't Google send Samsung a memo telling them they were copying Apple too closely? It seems like this isn't an Android problem but more of a Samsung problem.
Click to expand...

Ignorance is bliss

kdarling said:
This trial has nothing to do with design choices like rounded icons, which is the kind of thing that Google tried to get Samsung to avoid.

This trial is about internal unseen code methods, written by Google.

It's common for the source of such methods to protect their licensees. Microsoft publicly announced that they would defend anyone licensing their Windows phone code, for example.
Click to expand...

Exactly.
 
aerok

aerok

macrumors 65816
Oct 29, 2011
1,491
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Some of comments here really amaze me. How can people be so ignorant?
 
N

Naaaaak

macrumors 6502a
Mar 26, 2010
637
2,068
IIRC, Apple wanted Sun to indemnify their use of ZFS. Sun said, "no deal" and Apple dropped it entirely after years of effort.

I don't think this situation is unusual. If corporation A licenses something from corporation B, some kind of protection against this very type of lawsuit gives corporation A some reasonable assurances.
 
A

apolloa

Suspended
Oct 21, 2008
12,318
7,802
Time, because it rules EVERYTHING!
Iconoclysm said:
Uhh, many American corporations are "anti-American"...Apple isn't exactly pro-American either but they're at least trying to bring work back to the US.

No major PC manufacturer out there gives you cheap upgrades, not a single one.
Click to expand...


Ah, I see, you are talking about jobs, well that's the capitalist world you live in buddy, they move all manufacturing to the cheapest place on the planet, then charge you the consumer maximum mark ups, result is massive profit, capitalism at it's very best.

Thankfully, for the whole, where Macs are made they are made pretty well, although I would like a Mac Pro and think it would be nice to have something assembled in America, and I'm British!

As for the upgrades, Apple are the only ones that drop support for your Mac in OSX, thus if you want the latest version you have to upgrade, and Macs aren't cheap. Not to mention iOS devices which are even worst as you'll need to run the latest iOS eventually to get the apps you want.
Upgrading PC's are a lot cheaper.
 
C

cdmoore74

macrumors 68020
Jun 24, 2010
2,413
711
aerok said:
Some of comments here really amaze me. How can people be so ignorant?
Click to expand...

People here are so anti-Samsung they never caught the fact that Apple was suing Samsung to attack Google indirectly. Now that Google has stepped up to the plate we now have Google haters in the house. And because Google is covering 4 out of the 5 patents I'm not sure if people can continue to call Samsung copycats. I see this war between Apple and Google and that will spoil the relationship.
So I guess now people here are going to close down their Gmail accounts, not use Google maps, avoid YouTube and not visit Google.com. The hate runs deep here so I wouldn't be surprised.
 
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