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Apple Seeks $22M in Fees/Costs from Samsung in "Exceptional" Patent Case

December 11, 2013 | Posted in : Expenses / Costs, Fee Entitlement / Recoverability, Fee Request

Apple is asking U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh to order Samsung to pay $15.7 million in attorney fees and $6.2 million in expenses for litigating their feud over iPhone and iPad technology.  That’s approximately a third of the $60 million that Apple says it owes its lawyers in the patent infringement case.  Apple is entitled to recover attorney fees against Samsung under the Lanham Act, a fee-shifting statute.

A federal jury in August 2012 found Samsung had violated Apple’s patent rights and trademark protections by copying iPhone and iPad technology in its older products.  That jury, and another in a separate damages retrial last month, calculated $930 million in combined damages against Samsung.  Samsung has vowed to appeal the damages to the U.S. Federal Circuit Court of Appeals, which hears all patent appeals.

Apple indicated that the legal fees extended through only last March and do not include the cost of pressing the recent damages retrial.  The specific charges and billing were filed under seal, blocking out of the detail of what was paid to the two main law firms representing Apple, Morrison & Foerster and Wilmer Hale.  According to court documents, Apple charged only for lawyers who billed more than $100,000 for work on the patent case against Samsung.

Judge Koh is expected to consider the fee request in January.  The case in U.S. District Court, Northern District of California is Apple Inc v. Samsung Electronics Co Ltd.