Apple has asked a U.S. court to award it monetary damages for continuing infringement of three of its patents by Samsung Electronics, following the court's refusal to ban sales of the infringing products.
Last week Apple saw its request for an injunction on U.S. sales of infringing Samsung products, including the Galaxy S III smartphone, denied by Judge Lucy Koh in the San Jose division of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
The company failed to convince the court that people were buying Samsung products because of the infringing features, she said.
Apple has already said it will appeal that ruling, and late Wednesday it filed the request for monetary compensation for ongoing infringement of the three patents.
In May a jury awarded Apple US$119.6 million in damages for Samsung's pre-trial infringement of the patents, much less than the $2 billion Apple had asked for.
The three patents cover the "slide to unlock," "auto correct" and "quick links" features. The last one detects if typed text is an email address or a date, for example, and can add it to the address book or calendar.
Apple said in Wednesday's motion it will continue to be irreparably harmed by Samsung's infringement. While the harm cannot be fully compensated with money damages, it said, "Nonetheless, Apple is entitled to receive at least an ongoing royalty to partially compensate for Samsung's ongoing infringement of Apple's patents through sales of the infringing products and products that are not more than colorably different from the infringing products."
For infringing the three patents, Apple demanded a total of at least $6.46 per infringing Samsung product. The amount is based on the implied per-product amounts awarded by the jury for Samsung's past infringement of these patents, Apple said.
After the May ruling, Apple and Samsung agreed to settle their legal disputes outside of the U.S., ending lawsuits in nine countries, leaving the U.S. as their only remaining patent battle ground.
This is the second major patent victory for Apple over Samsung in California. In the first, Apple was awarded $1.05 billion in damages for Samsung's violation of its patents, although that was reduced to about $930 million in a retrial.
Loek is Amsterdam Correspondent and covers online privacy, intellectual property, open-source and online payment issues for the IDG News Service. Follow him on Twitter at @loekessers or email tips and comments to loek_essers@idg.com
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