Sorry, Samsung: It looks like that additional $290 million still isn’t enough for Apple. Apple filed a motion this week asking Samsung to pay an additional $15.7 million to help cover Apple’s legal expenses, which the company says totaled more than $60 million over the duration of the patent trial.
In the U.S. patent reform context, “loser pays”-type fee-shifting is a hot topic (see this Bloomberg article on “Three Issues to Watch as the Senate Targets Patent Trolls”, which contains a quote from me on the Goodlatte bill passed by the House yesterday). Presently the hurdle for recovery of legal fees in the U.S. is extraordinarily high: courts do sometimes award attorneys’ fees, but only in “exceptional” cases.