Samsung challenges $539mn verdict in Apple patent case
San Francisco, June 12 : Samsung has filed a motion with the US District Court in San Jose, California, to appeal a verdict that asked the South Korean giant to pay Apple $539 million for copying patented iPhone designs - a legal battle that dates back to 2011.
Samsung thinks the verdict is wrong and wants a refund of some damages already paid, CNET reported on Monday. It asked a court last week to either dismiss the judgment or retry the case in which the damages were decided, the report said.
Samsung was given the $539 million penalty last month as it was found infringing on five patents with Android phones it sold in 2010 and 2011.
The legal dispute between the two tech giants dates to 2011 when Apple sued Samsung. This led the South Korean tech giant to countersue the Cupertino, California-headquartered Apple in the same year, according to a report in The Korea Herald in May.
Samsung lost the case in 2012. It was ordered to pay the US tech giant more than $1 billion for infringing on three of Apple's design patents related to mobile devices -- the quick links to phone numbers, the slide-to-unlock feature and the auto-correct function.
Under the US patent law, infringement of a design patent can result in a plaintiff receiving total profits made through the product.
Samsung's lawyers appealed the case, bringing down the compensation of $1 billion to $400 million in 2015 at the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.
In an attempt to limit the compensation to profits attributable to a specific component patent in question, Samsung then appealed the lower court's ruling to the Supreme Court.
The South Korean tech behemoth argued that component design could be just a small part of a smartphone whose technologies involve more than 200,000 patents.
In late 2016, the US Supreme Court agreed with Samsung and ordered the two tech giants to negotiate a date for a retrial to settle the award money for Apple, the The Korea Herald report said.
The new appeal against the $539 million verdict suggests that the seven-year-old legal battle between the two tech giants is far from over.
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Ex-RG Kar principal Sandip Ghosh's medical registration cancelled
Kolkata (PTI): The West Bengal Medical Council (WBMC) on Thursday cancelled the registration of RG Kar Medical College and Hospital's former principal Sandip Ghosh, an official said.
Ghosh, who is in CBI custody, has been removed from the list of registered medical practitioners maintained by the WBMC, he said.
His licence was cancelled under various provisions of the Bengal Medical Act of 1914, the official said.
He is an orthopaedic surgeon and without the licence, he cannot practice.
Ghosh was arrested by the CBI on September 2 for his alleged involvement in the financial irregularities at the hospital amid the protests over the rape and murder of the on-duty trainee doctor. He was later accused of evidence tampering in the rape-murder case.
Aniket Mahato, one of the leading faces of the junior doctors who have been agitating over the death of their colleague, described it as a "victory".
"This is a victory for our deceased sister. The cancellation of Ghosh's medical registration should have been done the very next day of his arrest. We are happy that the West Bengal Medical Council has finally taken this step," he said.
The West Bengal Doctors' Forum (WBDF), however, described the decision to cancel Ghosh's medical licence as an "eyewash" and an "attempt to save him".
"Registration of Sandip Ghosh has been cancelled as per rules 25 a (2) of the Bengal Medical Act 1914. As per these rules, two-thirds of the council members must vote in favour of the decision to cancel the registration of any medical practitioner. In the case of Ghosh, no such meeting was conducted. Also, at present, a quorum is not possible due to the resignation of a few members and the death of one member. So this order is legally not tenable and just an eye wash," Dr Rajiv Pandey of the WBDF told PTI.
Claiming that the registrar of the council cancelled the licence on verbal communication of WBMC president Sudipta Roy, Pandey said it "was not acceptable".
Ghosh was appointed the principal of the RG Kar Medical College in February 2021. Amid the protests, he resigned from the post.
The notice regarding the cancellation of Ghosh's registration was sent to his Beliaghata and New Town residences.
