AfterDawn: News

Apple spent at least $60 million on lawyers for its fight against Samsung

Apple paid its lead law firm over $60 million to help the company in its patent battles against rival Samsung.

The revelation comes via Apple legal documents filed this week.



Apple has so far been the big winner in the ongoing war, with juries awarding Apple damages of nearly $1 billion over the last two years.

The Cupertino giant is asking U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh to order Samsung to pay a quarter of Apple's legal fees, which would amount to a bit above $15 million. "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," Apple's attorneys added in the filing.

Apple also added that it received a significant discount from its lead firm, Morrison & Foerster's, due to their longtime relationship. It is unclear how much more the company would have had to pay had they been a smaller company with less clout.

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 6 Dec 2013 16:52

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• 5 comments

• A5J4DX

  damn...that is a lot of money!
  

  6.12.2013 17:04 #1

• jookycola

  gotta pay for that spaceship head quarters somehow. a drop in the bucket when you overcharge consumers for your products
  

  
  

  7.12.2013 09:54 #2

• SomeBozo

  Hmmm seems they are getting off cheap for legal fees.... Last article on afterdawn here about the settlement crapple got about 890 million in damages, lets round it to 1 billion. Given 60 million are for legal fees. So ball parking the percentage the layers got i was around 10%. Most of us if we got a layer and then won the settlement, unless negotiated differently, a lawyer will normally get 30% which should be around 300 million given the rough calculations... Bottom line it seem crapple got off cheap.
  

  7.12.2013 12:03 #3

• dali

  Originally posted by SomeBozo: Hmmm seems they are getting off cheap for legal fees.... Last article on afterdawn here about the settlement crapple got about 890 million in damages, lets round it to 1 billion. Given 60 million are for legal fees. So ball parking the percentage the layers got i was around 10%. Most of us if we got a layer and then won the settlement, unless negotiated differently, a lawyer will normally get 30% which should be around 300 million given the rough calculations... Bottom line it seem crapple got off cheap.
  The explanation of that "cheapness" can be that Apple, as every huge enterprise, must have a legal department of its own, which means that most of that lawyers will be actually in their payroll and, of course, they'll get incentives, but not even close to a 30%.
  

  "You know, it seems that quotes on the internet are becoming less and less reliable." -Abraham Lincoln.

  8.12.2013 03:50 #4

• xboxdvl2

  if apple gets some of the legal fee covered i hate to think what they will sue for next.They filed a dodgey lawsuit against samsung and surprisingly won,they get there money and now they want more ,not samsungs fault apple hired overpaid lawyers and continued to waste the courts time repeatedly until they won.
  

  i have the big screen tv,a ps3 and 5.1 channel surround sound.car still runs smooth and computer still works but its a bit outdated.

  8.12.2013 04:17 #5