It looks like Christmas has arrived early for Apple. Last week we posted a report titled "Court Rules Against Samsung & Sets a Great Precedent for Protecting Future Apple Products." And late yesterday, U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh of the Northern District of California entered a $548 million judgment for Apple Inc. in its smartphone "trial of the century" against Samsung—even though the Patent Trial and Appeal Board has invalidated one of the patents on which the judgment rests.

Acting at the explicit direction of the U.S. Court of Appeals decision last week for the Federal Circuit, Koh ordered Samsung Electronics Co. to pay $548,176,477 for 18 Samsung mobile devices that infringe five Apple design and utility patents according to The Recorder.

Koh apparently agreed with Apple and its team from Morrison & Foerster and Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr that it will likely take months or even years for PTAB appeals to be exhausted and the ruling to achieve preclusive effect. Plus, in its own review of the Apple-Samsung trial, the Federal Circuit in May explicitly directed "immediate entry of final judgment" on the patent damages portion of the verdict. It also rejected $382 million in damages for dilution of Apple's trade dress.

Meanwhile, Koh has set a week-long trial starting in March of next year to recalculate damages on five additional Samsung products that were found both to infringe Apple's patents and dilute its trade dress. Apple also plans to ask for supplemental damages and prejudgment interest for all 23 infringing products.

Florian Mueller of Foss Patents will be disappointed in Koh's decision. Last week Mueller stated that "It will be interesting to see how the Federal Circuit now addresses the issue that the United States Patent and Trademark Office has changed its mind and believes it shouldn't have granted Apple the '915 patent in the first place." Well, in the end, Koh specifically addressed that issue and sided with Apple despite Mueller's ongoing objections.

Back in December 2012 we posted a report that showed that only 11% of patents remain rejected and that 89% of patent being challenged end up being reinstated with minor changes. That's not my opinion; it's the statistics on record. So if historical statistics prove anything – then the likely outcome of re-examination will likely still favor Apple and I think Koh knew that as well.

Is this case finally over? Ha! Not when you have a vindictive competitor like Samsung. A spokesperson for Samsung said: "We intend to appeal the partial judgment and have previously announced our plans to petition this case to the US Supreme Court."

While the U.S. may be on the cusp of sanctioning China over cyber espionage and stealing U.S. IP, they should also pound Samsung into ground and ban their products from the U.S. for two years just to send them a message that you can't steal U.S. IP and then play the appeals game for a decade!

Of course that won't happen, but it should. Perhaps if Trump is paying attention he could take up this cause as part of his 'Make America Great Again' campaign: Ha! Why not?

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