Apple Not Satisfied, Wants More Samsung Damages

Apparently, a clear $1.05 billion victory over Samsung isn’t enough for Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL), and one way to read the vendor’s continued litigious posture is, Why settle for a hammer when a bludgeon will do? The iPhone kingpin on Sept. 21 reportedly filed a new motion in U.S. District Court in San Jose, Calif., asking for an additional $707 million in damages and a ban on sales of the Korean manufacturer’s devices in the United States.

Apple’s lawyer in court papers said that the harm Samsung inflicted was “deliberate, not accidental,” as recounted here. At the very least it will be interesting to see if the vendor can prove willful intent on Samsung’s part to win the supplemental damages it claims.

When Apple’s recent legal motions are added to the vendor’s request earlier this month asking Judge Lucy Koh to halt U.S. sales of 21 Samsung devices — a list that includes Samsung’s big fish, the Galaxy S III smartphone, claiming it and others violate Apple’s intellectual property rights — certainly you have the makings of a bludgeon.

Apple’s play for $707 million more from Samsung in damages includes $400 million for violating trademark laws, $135 million for infringing utility patents, $121 million for damages incurred as a result of Samsung sales since July 1 (following the jury’s June 30 cutoff date for damages) and $50 million in “just because” interest until Samsung pays up.

Samsung, as you might expect, is making sure Apple knows it’s not going away, itself asking in court motions for a new trial and lesser damages. “The Court’s constraints on trial time, witnesses and exhibits were unprecedented for a patent case of this complexity and magnitude, and prevented Samsung from presenting a full and fair case in response to Apple’s many claims,” reads Samsung’s motions also filed Sept. 21, according to this report.

Not to invoke pop psychology here but Apple’s uber-aggressive attitude may reflect very real concerns that in Samsung it faces a competitor unlike any other it has squared off with in the United States. Samsung, for its part, doesn’t seem  likely to shrink off and slink away, as evidenced, in part, by its recent spate of advertisements for its flagship Galaxy S III that go after the iPhone 5 head on and its reported plans to roll out an upgrade to the device next February, only 10 months after introducing the current edition. As some in the political arena artfully have said, that takes some brass.

So maybe in its most elementary form this ferocious, pitched battle being waged on four continents boils down to the bludgeon vs. the brass — with more twists and turns, perhaps, than rock vs. paper vs. scissors, but no less basic.