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The Significance of Dr. Redano's contribution | 83 comments | Create New Account
Comments belong to whoever posts them. Please notify us of inappropriate comments.
The Mysterious Disappearance Of Functionality Considerations From The Apple v. Samsung Design Patent Claim Construction ...
Authored by: eric76 on Tuesday, October 16 2012 @ 07:06 PM EDT
There doesn't seem to be anything rational about the trial.

It almost makes me wonder if the judge was trying to get it overturned by the
appeals court.

[ Reply to This | # ]

Corrections thread
Authored by: ChrisP on Tuesday, October 16 2012 @ 07:14 PM EDT
Please put 'Korrection -> correction' in the title.

---
Gravity sucks, supernovae blow!

[ Reply to This | # ]

Off-Topic Thread
Authored by: ChrisP on Tuesday, October 16 2012 @ 07:16 PM EDT
On-topic comments will be sucked into a black hole.

---
Gravity sucks, supernovae blow!

[ Reply to This | # ]

Thank you Dr. Redano...
Authored by: Gringo_ on Tuesday, October 16 2012 @ 07:17 PM EDT
...for your contribution in the interests of Justice.

[ Reply to This | # ]

News Picks Thread
Authored by: ChrisP on Tuesday, October 16 2012 @ 07:18 PM EDT
For easy reference, please put the URL or a link to the news pick in the
comment.

---
Gravity sucks, supernovae blow!

[ Reply to This | # ]

Well this is getting interesting.
Authored by: SilverWave on Tuesday, October 16 2012 @ 07:35 PM EDT
Thanks.

---
RMS: The 4 Freedoms
0 run the program for any purpose
1 study the source code and change it
2 make copies and distribute them
3 publish modified versions

[ Reply to This | # ]

lying to the jury
Authored by: Anonymous on Tuesday, October 16 2012 @ 07:39 PM EDT
Judges say things like this to juries all the time in their instructions:

"If you find by a preponderance of the evidence that the overall appearance
of an accused Samsung design is substantially the same as the overall appearance
of the claimed Apple design patent, and that the accused design was made, used,
sold, offered for sale, or imported within the United States, you must find that
the accused design infringed the claimed design."

The article explains that this statement is, in fact, false. The judge must
have known that her statements was false because it was incomplete. That makes
it a lie.

Even if it was more accurate, the "you must find" bugs me. MUST? In
the entire history of the United States, has a juror ever been executed or
thrown in jail merely for voting for acquittal? It is just another lie.

For all the talk about respect for juries, it is pretty clear to me that judges
hate them and cannot stand the idea that a jury would think for itself.
Personally, I think the jury would have been much less likely to run away eith
erroneous argument if it thought its members were allowed to think instead of
trying to follow irrational laws and instructions.

How do we get judges to stop lying to juries????

[ Reply to This | # ]

  • lying to the jury - Authored by: Anonymous on Tuesday, October 16 2012 @ 08:05 PM EDT
  • MUST? - Authored by: ChrisP on Tuesday, October 16 2012 @ 08:24 PM EDT
    • MUST? - Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, October 17 2012 @ 11:36 AM EDT
      • MUST? - Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, October 17 2012 @ 11:44 AM EDT
        • MUST? - Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, October 17 2012 @ 12:18 PM EDT
          • MUST? - Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, October 17 2012 @ 01:51 PM EDT
  • lying to the jury - Authored by: Anonymous on Tuesday, October 16 2012 @ 09:17 PM EDT
  • This is not lying. - Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, October 17 2012 @ 05:13 AM EDT
Obvious standard?
Authored by: Anonymous on Tuesday, October 16 2012 @ 08:16 PM EDT
Is this really the law in US? This is from the #452 docket (part 3) mentioned
above.


"The test for anticipation [and obviousness by implication] is the same as
the test for infringement, the only difference being that the court compares the
patented design with the alleged anticaptory reference rather than the accused
infringing product...".

So by implication something that is so obviously obvious that it is not worth
mentioning, IS NOT OBVIOUS?

But somebody who is "innovate enough" to patent it, gets the patent!

[ Reply to This | # ]

  • Obvious standard? - Authored by: Anonymous on Tuesday, October 16 2012 @ 10:21 PM EDT
Obvious standard? Part 2
Authored by: Anonymous on Tuesday, October 16 2012 @ 08:22 PM EDT
I thought the law was "somebody skilled in the art" rather than
"somebody skilled at being a pedant", lol

[ Reply to This | # ]

Missing a couple of important points...
Authored by: Anonymous on Tuesday, October 16 2012 @ 09:27 PM EDT

An important point that I think is missed is that both parties participate in creating the jury instructions. If you look at the docket, you can see tons of filings from both parties relating to the jury instructions.

The docket...

Sure, claim construction is the court's job, but unless Samsung timely objected to this issue, Samsung has already waived it and cannot appeal it.

Another point, the leading case on claim construction of design patents (Egyptian Goddess) makes clear that the district court has very broad latitude in construing design patents. In that case, the Federal Circuit stated:

One of the issues raised by this court in its order granting en banc review was whether trial courts should conduct claim construction in design patent cases. While this court has held that trial courts have a duty to conduct claim construction in design patent cases, as in utility patent cases, see Elmer, 67 F.3d at 1577, the court has not prescribed any particular form that the claim construction must take. To the contrary, the court has recognized that design patents "typically are claimed as shown in drawings," and that claim construction "is adapted accordingly." Arminak & Assocs., Inc., 501 F.3d at 1319; see also Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., 162 F.3d at 1116. For that reason, this court has not required that the trial court attempt to provide a detailed verbal description of the claimed design, as is typically done in the case of utility patents. See Contessa Food Prods., Inc., 282 F.3d at 1377 (approving district court's construction of the asserted claim as meaning "a tray of a certain design as shown in Figures 1-3").[1]

I am not sure if you can read that to mean that the court must talk about functional elements in claim construction. I think it means the exact opposite. Mainly, that as long as the court does claim construction (which it did), that is enough for claim construction. Thus, I think Apple will argue that the court did not err because it did not have to construe the functional elements of the design patents. Of course, if something was not construed, then it follows that it would not appear in the jury instructions.

Too bad so much was sealed in this case. This entire issue would be much more clear if we could read the claim construction briefings.

[ Reply to This | # ]

Where was Samsung?
Authored by: Anonymous on Tuesday, October 16 2012 @ 09:38 PM EDT
[T]his case offers the added twist of a district court that applied a proper claim interpretation at the preliminary injunction stage and then abandoned that claim interpretation in issuing its Final Jury Instructions, without explanation.
I won't claim to completely understand this paper and realize that it is an academic treatment, not a news report, but the question that jumps out at me is, "What was Samsung doing, then?"

Judge Koh didn't write the jury instructions in a vacuum. Samsung and Apple were arguing tooth and nail over them. Did Samsung allow this change to occur without arguing against it? If Samsung argued against it, how did it get implemented without some sort of explanation to Samsung? If it was implemented without justification, why haven't we heard more about this until now? We all know about Samsung making a huge deal about what it wasn't allowed to show in court thanks to Samsung providing information too late, but at least the court provided an explanation for that, yet it sounds as if this might have been an even bigger deal and without any explanation, so why didn't Samsung scream even louder about this? Without knowing those things, I have trouble trusting the conclusions of the paper. (I'm not saying it's wrong, but it doesn't seem consistent with what I know of Samsung's behavior.)

[ Reply to This | # ]

The Significance of Dr. Redano's contribution
Authored by: Gringo_ on Wednesday, October 17 2012 @ 08:50 AM EDT

Nearly everybody is aware by now of the Apple/Samsung patent battles. Among them, if they know nothing else, many have at least heard of two things: There is some controversy about Apple claiming a design patent on "rectangles with rounded corners", and they aware there is some controversy surrounding the fairness in recent trial between Apple and Samsung, whether due to jury misconduct or something else. These two issues have become central and the defining features of the conflict.

Dr. Redano's thesis directly addresses the first of these these features, and leaves us with a big question mark on the second.

The following (edited) quote summarizes Dr. Redano's thoughts on the issue of Apple's design patent on "rectangles with rounded corners"...

An important aspect of the functionality analysis in the invalidity context is that it applies to "the overall appearance" of the patented design, as opposed to functional elements of the patented design. Thus, it is possible that a design patent directed to a design consisting of eight functional elements and two ornamental elements might be found by the trier of fact to have an "overall appearance" that is not functional.

By failing to expressly identify non-ornamental (functional) features of Apple’s design patents and instruct the jury that such features were not to be considered in its infringement analysis, the district court materially, and perhaps fatally, prejudiced Samsung’s non-infringement defenses.

Above, (besides having abbreviated Dr. Redano's arguments), I have highlighted a line with bold font that should have spelled doom for Apple's design patent, because Apple design philosophy eliminates ornamentation.

Nothing remains but the functional elements of the design at issue. Unfortunately for Apple, their design philosophy doesn't lend itself to design patents on specific elements. Only when you combine together each individual component of the endless elements of hardware, software, and packaging that make up an iPhone do you finally get something that says "Apple".

Apple's "form follows function" design philosophy is clean, orderly, and based on lines, curves, bevels and simplicity. It is heavily influenced by 1960s Braun products. Jobs wanted his products to be simple above all else.

It must have been a huge frustration for Apple to have to defend its design patent on "rectangles with rounded corners" when they would have been well aware that it is, in in itself, indefensible. Being indefensible, the only way Apple could survive jury scrutiny of it design patent was to have the jury ignore functional elements of the design. How the jury ended up without instruction on this matter, in spite of the fact that the district court had promised to give such instruction earlier, leaves us with this big black question mark hovering over the question of fairness of the Apple/Samsung trial.

[ Reply to This | # ]

The Mysterious Disappearance Of Functionality Considerations From The Apple v. Samsung Design Patent Claim Construction ...
Authored by: Anonymous on Saturday, October 20 2012 @ 07:15 AM EDT
Lots of people blame the judge, i for one do not. This case
is very complex, lots of tiny stuff like this every court
date goes by. Both parties are fighting tooth and nail. you
can really see how apple really gives nothing up. On these
kind of issues it really becomes hard to keep track of all
this. It probably slipped through because apple was arguing
some other ridiculous thing, or samsung was making some
other major demand, through all the fighting things fall
under the radar. I wonder how anybody would stay on top of
everything in the trial. If its not something today, it definitely something
tomorrow, and 5 things the day after
that... those things sure add up.

[ Reply to This | # ]

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