Apple claims that it has paid around $60 million as legal fees in connection with patent infringement litigation against Samsung, and now the iPhone maker wants the Korean company to pay at least one-fourth of the legal fees.
Both Apple and Samsung are engaged in courtroom battles over each other's intellectual property rights. The smartphone makers have made their way to the court twice in the last two years. The San Jose, California federal court and juries have also awarded Apple around $930 million in damages.
In the latest court filings, Apple has asked U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh to order Samsung to pay $15.7 million, which is around one-fourth of the $60 million Apple has spent as legal fees.
"Awarding fees to Apple 'flows quite naturally' from the jury's willfulness verdict as well as Samsung's extensive record of willful, deliberate, and calculated decisions to copy the iPhone, in blatant disregard for Apple's IP," said Apple's attorney in the court filing.
Morrison Foerster LLP's partner Rachel Krevans said Apple had paid the firm $56.5 million for work on the Samsung case between April 2011 and August 2013. The firm has also done additional work since August and the legal bill will now come to approximately $60 million.
Apple said the $60 million does not include legal fees of lawyers who had billed the company less than $100,000 on the case.
The technology giant said that because of its long-time client relationship with Morrison Foerster LLP, the law firm has also given them a significant discount on standard rates. Apple said it also expects to pay its other outside law firm, Wilmer Culter Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP, around $2 million in legal fees for the week-long damages retrial against Samsung that took place in November this year.
Neither Samsung nor Apple have commented on the latest case.
