Today in Apple v. Samsung Electronics the Federal Circuit reinstated a $199.6M jury verdict for Samsung's infringement of Apple's US Patent Nos. 5,946,647, 8,046,721, and 8,074,172 because the verdict was supported by substantial evidence in the record and the trial court didn't err in denying Samsung's judgment as a matter of law (JMOL).
The Federal Circuit stated it must limit its appellant function to the trial court's record:
"We granted Apple's en banc petition to affirm our understanding of the appellate function as limited to deciding the issues raised on appeal by the parties, deciding these issues only on the basis of the record made below, and as requiring appropriate deference be applied to the review of fact findings. There was no need to solicit additional briefing or argument on the question of whether an appellate panel can look to extra-record extrinsic evidence to construe a patent claim term. “The Supreme Court made clear that the factual components [of claim construction] include ‘the background science or the meaning of a term in the relevant art during the relevant time period.’” Teva Pharms., Inc. v. Sandoz, Inc., 789 F.3d 1335, 1342 (Fed. Cir. 2015) (quoting Teva Pharms., Inc. v. Sandoz, Inc., 135 S. Ct. 831, 841 (2015)). After Teva, such fact findings are indisputably the province of the district court. ... We likewise did not need additional briefing or argument to determine that the appellate court is not permitted to reverse fact findings that were not appealed or that the appellate court is required to review jury fact findings when they are appealed for substantial evidence. The panel reversed nearly a dozen jury fact findings including infringement, motivation to combine, the teachings of prior art references, commercial success, industry praise, copying, and long-felt need across three different patents. It did so despite the fact that some of these findings were not appealed and without ever mentioning the applicable substantial evidence standard of review. And with regard to objective indicia, it did so in ways that departed from existing law.
The dissents, and Judge Dyk’s dissent in particular, raise big questions about how aspects of the obviousness doctrine ought to operate. But no party—at the panel or the petition for rehearing en banc stage—invited this court to consider changing the existing law of obviousness. We did not take this case en banc to decide important legal questions about the inner workings of the law of obviousness."
See Gene Quinn's IP Watchdog article Federal Circuit recognizes its role as only an appellate court in Apple v. Samsung and Susan Decker's Bloomberg article Apple Wins Appeal Reinstating $199.6M Samsung Verdict.
Copyright © 2016 Robert Moll. All rights reserved.
