With an unusually strong dissent, Federal Circuit Chief Judge Sharon Prost practically invited Samsung to request a rehearing en banc (full-court review) of a 2-1 decision that would, unless overturned, pave the way for a permanent injunction for Apple against Samsung over patents covering limited aspects of some of countless smartphone features. Samsung accepted the de facto invitation and petitioned accordingly. On Monday, five amicus curiae briefs in support of Samsung's petition were filed. These amici include:
the National Black Chamber of Commerce (which warns against the risks of African-American businesses being forced out of markets by patent-wielding incumbents);
non-governmental organizations Public Knowledge and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), whose joint filing focuses on the majority opinion's holding that the public interest "nearly always" favors patentees seeking injunctions, which has these NGOs greatly concerned;
innovation policy researchers Charles M. Davidson and Michael J. Santorelli of the Advanced Communications Law and Policy Institute of New York Law School, whose brief (filed in their individual capacities, not on behalf of their university) expresses profound concern over a potential "deluge of lawsuits seeking injunctive relief" that would stifle innovation;
the Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA), whose members include, among others, Amazon, Intuit, Microsoft, Netflix, Sprint, and Yahoo; and
a group of companies including Google, Facebook, eBay, ASUSTeK, HTC, Lenovo, Newegg, and Red Hat. (ASUSTeK, HTC and Lenovo compete directly with Samsung.)
Chief Judge Prost must be pleased that her dissent from the majority opinion has support in academia, NGOs, and industry.
Apple, however, has a particular problem with the brief filed by the Google-Facebook group. It has asked the Federal Circuit to reject the brief because the filers allegedly didn't meet and confer with Apple prior to filing and because Google should, in Apple's opinion, be treated as another party to the dispute lest its amicus brief constitute an end-run around page limits. I don't have an opinion on the procedural argument, and it doesn't seem overly important to me whether Google is a legitimate amicus curiae in this case, given that there is no way Apple could prevent all the other members of that group of companies from filing an amicus brief. Also, even if the court formally agreed with Apple, the circuit judges would get to see that brief anyway. By far and way the most important aspect of this brief is that it shows the support Samsung has in industry. That political weight would not be diminished by a potential rejection.
Here's the "Google et al." brief (this post continues below the document):
15-11-02 Google Facebook Et Al. Amicus Curiae Brief ISO en Banc by Florian Mueller
Just like Chief Judge Prost, these companies seek to defend the causal nexus standard the Federal Circuit established in its first three Apple v. Samsung injunction decisions. Part A of the brief explains why there is now an inconsistency that must be settled by means of a rehearing en banc. In the second half of their filing, these companies focus on their concerns as major high-tech companies. They refer to an analogy that came up in a previous Apple v. Samsung injunction-related ruling (and to Justice Kennedy's famous concurrent opinion in eBay v. MercExchange):
"To borrow from this Court's analogy in Apple III, if a laptop computer maker was required to change the design of its battery, cooling fan or screws (and the list goes on and on) every time it was found to infringe one of the thousands of patents covering minor features of its product, and was then forced to litigate whether its design-around complies with the injunction, the laptop maker would face the constant threat of coercive patent litigation."
Instead of injunctions, they propose cross-license agreements such as the one Google and SAP announced last week. They note that Apple has licensed the patents at issue, as the record of this case irrefutably shows.
There is a significant overlap between these amici and the membership of CCIA, but CCIA also has a number of very significant other members, such as the ones I listed further above. Here's CCIA's brief (this post continues below the document):
15-11-02 Apple v. Samsung CCIA Amicus ISO Petition for en Banc by Florian Mueller
I have repeatedly disagreed, but also agreed on more than one occasion, with CCIA. I agree this time around, with one exception:
"There is no dispute that patents are a critical part of protecting innovations."
There are industries in which that is the case, but in this industry, there's a constantly-growing number of companies and individuals who believe the patent system does more harm than good. CCIA notes that its member companies file for patents, and they probably didn't want to appear as an anti-patent group here. So they diplomatically chose to say something about information and communications technology (ICT) patents that is actually rather controversial in this industry. That tactical choice has nothing to do with the strength of CCIA's arguments for a rehearing, of course.
CCIA's brief is very focused. The concern is all about outsized, undue leverage for patent holders over high-tech companies that build highly multifunctional products. It's a concise and convincing brief that has drawn my attention to a brand-new academic paper I wasn't previously aware of:
"The majority's 'new and lower causal nexus appears disconnected from the reality of multicomponent devices. It fails to appreciate that even those most innovative technology products are made up of countless small advances, not a few pioneering ones.' Bernard Chao, Causation and Harm in a Multicomponent World at 9 (U. Denv. Sturm C. of Law Legal Studies Research Paper Series, Working Paper No. 15-56, Oct. 27, 2015), http://ssrn.com/abstract=2681204"
The five amicus briefs nicely complement each other. There are, of course, overlaps (for example, the thrust of the two filings from industry is very similar). But each of these filings raises issues and arguments that increase the likelihood of a rehearing. I'm optimistic about the prospects of this, and we'll likely see even more amicus brief activity if the rehearing is indeed granted.
Apple will likely also get some support for its opposition to Samsung's petition, including, if the not too distant past is any indication, from Ericsson, a company that would not hesitate to leverage a patentee-friendly final decision in Apple v. Samsung against Apple...
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