Jury says Samsung infringed Apple patents

SAN JOSE, Calif. — A California jury awarded Apple $119 million — far less than it demanded — in a patent battle with Samsung over alleged copying of smart phone features, and the jury made the victory even smaller by finding that Apple illegally used one of Samsung's patents.

The verdict was a far cry from the $2.2 billion Apple sought and the $930 million it won in a separate 2012 trial making similar patent infringement claims against older Samsung products, most of which are no longer for sale in the United States.

The jury found that Apple had infringed one of Samsung's patents in creating the iPhone 4 and 5. Jurors awarded Samsung $158,400, trimming that amount from the original $119.62 million verdict. Samsung had sought $6 million.

"Though this verdict is large by normal standards, it is hard to view this outcome as much of a victory for Apple," Santa Clara University law professor Brian Love said. "This amount is less than 10 percent of the amount Apple requested and probably doesn't surpass by too much the amount Apple spent litigating this case."

The award may be adjusted slightly in favor of Apple. Jurors were ordered to return to court Monday to continue deliberations on a minor matter that could result in a higher award for Apple. Because the jury was still empaneled, jurors were prevented from talking publicly about the case.

Samsung spokesman Lauren Restuccia declined comment, citing the ongoing deliberations.

Apple declared Friday's verdict a victory.

"Samsung willfully stole our ideas and copied our products," Apple spokeswoman Kristin Huguet said. "We are fighting to defend the hard work that goes into beloved products like the iPhone, which our employees devote their lives to designing and delivering for our customers."

Unlike the first trial in San Jose federal court in 2012, Samsung lawyers made Google a central focus of their defense. Google makes the Android software that Samsung and other smartphone manufacturers use as their operating systems. Samsung argued that Google was Apple's real target.

More than 70 percent of smartphones run on Android, a mobile operating system that Google Inc. has given out for free to Samsung and other phone makers

Both companies will now try to urge the judge to remove the others products from store shelves in the United State. Love and other experts say that neither company is expected to succeed with those demands.

"So far Apple has been unsuccessful at doing so and, without a sales ban, this case is unlikely to move the needle on the larger battle between Apple and Android," Love said.

The verdict marked the latest intellectual property battle between the world's top two smartphone makers. Apple and Samsung have sued each other in courts and trade offices around the world.

Apple and Samsung are locked in a bitter struggle for dominance of the $330 billion worldwide smartphone market. Samsung has become the leader of the sector with a 31 percent share after being an also-ran with just 5 percent in 2007. Apple, meanwhile, has seen its market share slip to about 15 percent from a high of 27 percent three years ago.

The jury of four men and four women delivered its verdict in the latest case after beginning deliberations on April 29.

During the monthlong trial, Apple argued that many of the key functions and vital features of Samsung phones were invented by Apple. Samsung countered that its phones operate on the Google Android software system and that any legal complaint Apple has is with the search giant.

Google entered the smartphone market while its then-CEO Eric Schmidt was on Apple's board. The move infuriated Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, who considered Android to be a blatant rip-off of iPhone innovations.

After removing Schmidt from Apple's board, Jobs vowed that Apple would resort to "thermonuclear war" to destroy Android and its allies. At the recent trial, Samsung attorneys produced an email Jobs sent to executives in 2010 urging them to wage a "holy war" against Android in 2011.

Early in deliberations, the jury wanted to know if Jobs had mentioned Google when considering the lawsuit that was eventually filed in 2012, several months after the Apple founder died of cancer.

U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh told jurors no additional evidence was available to them beyond what was presented during the trial.

Koh answered similarly to questions about Samsung's chief executive officer's reaction when informed that Apple executives had complained to executives at the South Korean company about alleged patent infringement.

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Home Showcase: A contemporary spin on classic summer cottage

A dozen new cottage-style homes have been built on the site of the former Thomas Jefferson Coolidge mansion in Manchester-by-the-Sea.

Variations of classic summer cottages, with some affording ocean views, the homes at Summer Hill cluster around a central green, part of the subdivision's 11 acres of open space. There is also a walking path down to Magnolia Beach a quarter-mile away.

We took a look at 5 Blynman Circle, a three-bedroom, 3,678-square-foot home with views of Clark's Pond on the market for $1,626,000.

The beige-clapboard, cedar-shingled home has a mahogany-lined front porch and features high-end door, window and crown moldings and 4-inch white oak floors throughout.

A large open living/dining area with a gas fireplace and two walls of windows, including a bumpout nook, resides to the left of the entry foyer.

A French door leads down to a three-season porch.

The kitchen has white-painted maple cabinets, antique-white Silestone countertops and high-end Viking appliances, plus a second Fisher Paykel dishwasher and Marvel wine cooler.

The master bedroom suite at the rear of the first floor has a wall of windows and balcony overlooking Clark's Pond and interior windows overlooking the porch. There's a radiant-heat tiled floor in the master bathroom and walk-in closet.

A laundry room on this floor has a washer and dryer as well as a half-bathroom and a mudroom that opens to a two-car garage.

The second floor features two good-sized oak-floored bedrooms with a two-sink marble vanity bathroom connecting them.

The home's lower level features a large family room with a wet bar and wine cooler. The family room opens out to a small back yard. There's a full tiled bathroom here as well as the home's four-zone heating and central air conditioning systems and tankless hot water heater.

HOME SHOWCASE

• Address: 5 Blynman Circle, Manchester-by-the-Sea
• Bedrooms: Three
• Bathrooms: Three full, one half
• List price: $1,626,000
• Square feet: 3,678
• Price per square foot: $442
• Annual taxes: To be determined
• Monthly Homeowner Association Fee: $484 
(projected)
• Location: About a half-mile to shops and 
restaurants in Magnolia Village and a quarter mile to Magnolia Beach
• Built in: 2013-2014
• Broker: Sandy Carpentier and Lynne Saporito of J Barrett and Co. at 978-922-2700

Pros:

• Contemporary open plan with cottage feel
• Master bedroom overlooks Clark's Pond
• High-end Viking appliance kitchen package
• Large family room opens out to back yard

Cons:

• Houses in development are close together

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Cambridge co. seeks FDA OK for cancer drug

A Cambridge company plans to seek federal regulatory approval this year for a new drug to treat pancreatic cancer after positive late-stage trial results were announced this week.

Merrimack Pharmaceuticals said its MM-398 drug, used in combination with two chemotherapy drugs, improved the average survival rate of patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer. The rate extended to 6.1 months — 1.9 months longer than when the other two drugs were used alone — for those who previously received gemcitabine-based therapy.

"Given that there have only been a handful of successful Phase 3 trials in pancreatic cancer in the past 25 years, it is gratifying to have the first positive Phase 3 trial in the post-gemcitabine setting," CEO Robert Mulroy said in a statement.

There are only three FDA-approved treatments for pancreatic cancer, which is the fourth leading cause of cancer death in the United States with a 6 percent five-year survival rate, according to the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network.

Shares of Merrimack fell 8 percent yesterday to $6.43, after soaring to a 52-week high of $7.65 on Thursday, when the company also reported a $27.8 million quarterly loss and said it has enough cash to get it into 2015.

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Car Smart: Malibu’s a solid mid-size sedan

While the South Korean and German automakers continue to chip away at Honda and Toyota's mid-size sedan market share, the 2014 Chevrolet Malibu stays in the mix to provide a solid domestic alternative.

The Malibu, which is loaded with advanced safety technology, but lacks a diesel or hybrid engine choice, is no less worthy of a test drive.

Our $35,000 crystal red tester had a sporty appearance that is hard from afar to distinguish from the larger Chevrolet Impala. Chrome trim outlined the windows, grille and door handles, and 19-inch aluminum wheels completed the look.

The Malibu's $890 advanced safety package was full of technology usually reserved for the luxury segment. Included in the package was a blind-zone alert with a warning light that blinks in the side-view mirrors when a trailing vehicle enters the driver's blind spot.

The sedan also had a forward collision alert that uses a camera in the windshield to warn the driver if the Malibu is rapidly approaching another vehicle. Other features included were lane-departure warning and rear cross-traffic alert combined with a rear view camera, which made backing out onto a busy street less stressful.

Most of the features could be customized or shut off.

The downside is many of the systems' sensors are in the sedan's bumper and windshield, which means keeping the Malibu clean is a must especially during the winter.

A turbocharged 4-
cylinder, 2.0-liter engine had me guessing until I looked under the hood. I could have sworn the Malibu that churned out 259 horsepower was packing a 6-cylinder, especially considering how the Chevy hustled off the line with 295 lb.-ft of torque. A tapshift manual-matic shifter allowed me to wind out the six-speed automatic transmission. Our tester got 30 miles per gallon on the highway and 21 mpg in the city. Chevy also offers the Malibu with a 2.5L, 4-cylinder engine with direct injection and 196 horsepower. The larger, less powerful engine yields an additional six miles per gallon in fuel savings on the highway.

The sedan was smooth through the turns, holding its line through highway ramps and on twisty back roads. Road noise was hardly noticeable during long drives on the Mass Pike.

A jet black interior with leather seating featured an eight-way power adjustable driver's seat with two memory settings. The front seats were heated and had dual-zone climate controls. I found an abundance of storage cubbies, cup holders and a handy cellphone slot on the center console. Pairing my iPhone was trouble-free via Chevrolet's Mylink touchscreen. Music stored on my phone was easy to call up on the screen and sounded great through the nine-speaker Pioneer entertainment system with a 250-watt amplifier.

Other features that caught my eye were a push-button starter and a fuel-saving stop/start function that automatically shut the engine off when the car was stopped and seamlessly restarted when I took my foot off the brake. Backseat legroom was less than I would expect for a mid-sized sedan.

The 2014 Malibu falls behind the Accord, Camry, Passat and Sonata when considering the most fuel-efficient mid-sized sedan; however, the Malibu does provide a solidly built, fun-to-drive and easy-to-park alternative. The Ford Fusion deserves equal consideration when shopping for a mid-sized sedan.

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BC Law School gets Thomas More statue

Boston College Law School yesterday hosted a dedication ceremony for a newly installed sculpture of St. Thomas More that was donated by a family that is known for its generosity throughout the city of Boston.

The statue is the latest gift from the Privitera family who has given statues to the Dante Alighieri Cultural Society in Cambridge and the Sacred Heart Church in the North End. There is also a scholarship and award in their name at the law school.

The sculpture of St. Thomas More, who was a lawyer, author and councilor to Henry VIII of England, was made by Bolivian-born Pablo Eduardo, who now lives in Gloucester.

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Jury gives Apple $120M, Samsung $158G in patent fight

A California jury yesterday awarded Apple $120 million and Samsung $158,000 after finding both companies infringed each other's smartphone patents.

The damages awarded to the two tech giants paled in comparison to what each had sought. Samsung Electronics Co. sued for 
$6 million after arguing that Apple had infringed on two patents related to camera use and video transmission, while Apple sought $2.2 billion after accusing Samsung of infringing on five patents covering universal searching, quick linking, automatic word correction and background syncing and slide-to-lock functions.

"This is a victory for Samsung, in my view, as it sought to downplay the patents' real value," said N. Venkat Venkatraman, a Boston University professor of management. "Clearly, the jury has sided with the arguments forwarded by Samsung's lawyers that Apple's patents are not worth as much."

The verdict marked the latest intellectual property battle between the world's top two smartphone makers.

Two years ago, another jury ordered Samsung to pay Apple $930 million after finding it had used Apple technology to create older-generation devices. Samsung is appealing that verdict.

"You'd like to think what they'll learn is this continuous patent litigation is not going to deliver the clear verdict either sought," said Van Baker, an analyst at Gartner. "The Samsung award probably won't even cover the company's legal fees. You would hope this would lead both of them to settle their differences and come to a cross-licensing agreement."

Herald wire services contributed to this report.

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GM recalling 51,640 SUVs for defective fuel gauges

DETROIT — General Motors is recalling 51,640 SUVs because the fuel gauges may show inaccurate readings.

The recall involves the Buick Enclave, Chevrolet Traverse and GMC Acadia from the 2014 model year. All of the affected SUVs were built between March 26 and Aug. 15 of 2013.

GM says the engine control module software may cause the fuel gauge to read inaccurately. If that happens, the vehicle might run out of fuel and stall without warning.

The company doesn't know of any crashes or injuries related to the problem.

GM says dealers will reprogram the software for free, starting immediately. The company will also notify owners by mail.

The recall was posted Saturday on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's Web site.

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Federal judge dismisses latest Cape Wind lawsuit

BOSTON — A federal judge has dismissed latest efforts by opponents to derail a proposed offshore wind farm in Nantucket Sound.

The Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound, the town of Barnstable and several Cape Cod businesses had argued in a lawsuit filed in January that the state overstepped its authority when it brokered an agreement for NStar to buy power from the project.

U.S. District Judge Richard Stearns on Friday dismissed the lawsuit, saying the federal court has no jurisdiction over claims in the case and because opponents of the wind farm failed to state a claim upon which relief can be granted

Cape Wind President Jim Gordon said on Saturday that the court decision provides further momentum for the project to secure financing to launch a domestic offshore wind farm.

Opponents of the project did not immediately comment.

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White House reporters to honor black journalist

WASHINGTON — Harry McAlpin was standing outside the Oval Office, moments away from becoming the first black reporter to attend a presidential news conference, when one of his contemporaries approached with a deal.

Stay out here, the reporter told McAlpin. The other White House correspondents would share their notes, and McAlpin would have a chance to become an official member of the correspondents association. McAlpin marched into the Oval Office anyway. Afterward, President Franklin Roosevelt shook McAlpin's hand and said, "I'm glad to see you, McAlpin, and very happy to have you here."

McAlpin, who became a fixture at the White House during the Roosevelt and Truman administrations, never got a White House Correspondents' Association membership. But now, in its centennial year, the WHCA is honoring McAlpin with a scholarship bearing his name.

The scholarship was to be presented Saturday night during the WHCA's annual dinner with President Barack Obama.

"Harry McAlpin is someone who should be recognized and shouldn't be forgotten," National Journal correspondent George Condon, the association's unofficial historian, said this week during a panel discussion about diversity and the White House press corps.

WHCA President Steven Thomma noted that the correspondents group is much more diverse now than in the days when it refused membership to blacks, thus excluding them from presidential press conferences.

"Not quite where this press corps probably ought to be to have the kind of voices and questions we want to hear, but I think we've made some progress," Thomma said.

Before McAlpin, minority reporters had been excluded from many official Washington news conferences.

That changed after the creation of the National Negro Publishers Association in 1941. John Sengstacke, the publisher of the Chicago Defender and one of the creators of the NNPA, opened a Washington bureau for the Defender and hired McAlpin, a lawyer, as a part-time correspondent. During a discussion with Attorney General Francis Biddle about the black press' war coverage, Sengstacke suggested the attorney general ask the White House to allow a black reporter into its news conferences.

In February 1944, Roosevelt invited 13 NNPA leaders to the White House, and three days later, McAlpin was standing outside the Oval Office, waiting for his first news conference as a White House reporter.

The breaking of that barrier did not mean that everything was now fine inside the White House for blacks. Roosevelt press secretary Stephen Early refused to introduce McAlpin to the president, as was customary at that time, leading McAlpin to walk up to Roosevelt alone, said Earnest L. Perry Jr., who wrote about the attempt to credential a black White House correspondent for the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication.

Although he tried using his White House press pass, McAlpin was never credentialed to cover Congress. Louis Lautier ended up being the first accredited African-American congressional reporter.

McAlpin eventually left Washington to practice law in Louisville, Kentucky, and later became the president of the local NAACP chapter. He died in 1985.

McAlpin's son Sherman, who lives in Maryland, will attend Saturday's WHCA dinner and meet with Obama.

___

Online:

Hear Harry S. McAlpin talk about his life at http://thisibelieve.org/essay/16794/

___

Follow Jesse J. Holland on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/jessejholland

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5 cautionary signs in April's US jobs report

WASHINGTON — Employers added a sizable 288,000 jobs in April.

Hiring in February and March was better than first thought.

The unemployment rate plunged to 6.3 percent from 6.7 percent.

At first glance, Friday's U.S. jobs report suggested that the agonizingly slow 5-year-old economic recovery had burst into a full sprint.

Yet several cautionary signs emerged from the report, starting with that spectacular plunge in the unemployment rate.

Here's why: The government uses two surveys for the jobs report. The job gain comes from a survey of businesses, the unemployment rate from a survey of households. Sometimes, the two conflict.

The survey of businesses showed 288,000 more jobs. Yet the household survey, in calculating unemployment, found that 73,000 fewer people had jobs.

Why did the unemployment rate sink? Because 806,000 fewer people were in the workforce. Many retired or ended their job hunts. And fewer-than-expected people began looking for work.

The unemployment rate typically drops when fewer people seek work: If they're not hunting for a job, they're not counted as unemployed.

All of which points to an underlying weakness in an otherwise improving job market.

"When you have a robust economy, you don't get these mixed messages," said Douglas Holtz-Eakin, a former head of the Congressional Budget Office and now president of the conservative American Action Forum.

Here are five cautionary signs from April's jobs report:

543,000 FEWER PEOPLE SEEKING WORK

Let's dive a bit deeper into that unemployment rate. People flow into and out of the job market each month. Some leave for school; others return, armed with a degree. Some quit to raise a family. Some apply for jobs after their kids start kindergarten. In April, the number of people who began looking for work fell off a statistical cliff.

This suggests that the recovery lacks the kind of gravitational force needed to draw more workers back into the fold. Just 58.9 percent of the working-age population holds a job. That's down from 62.9 percent before the recession began at the end of 2007.

"We do not yet have a jobs recovery that is strong enough to really pull people in," said Heidi Shierholz, an economist at the progressive Economic Policy Institute.

The number of people who began seeking work for the first time fell 126,000 from March to roughly 1 million. The figure for new grads and parents who began looking was even bleaker: Down 417,000 to 2.6 million.

If those 543,000 people combined had all started looking for work in April, the unemployment rate would be 6.6 percent — a dip from March's 6.7 percent, rather than the plunge to 6.3 percent.

NO HOUSING REBOUND

Builders added 32,000 workers in April. But just 41 percent of them were for constructing homes. That share is usually around 50 percent. The lower figure likely reflects how much housing has cooled this year after a solid improvement in 2013. Sales of new homes plunged 14.5 percent last month, according to the Commerce Department.

Friday's report suggested that homebuilding could remain sluggish.

"You see that in the hiring numbers," said Steve Blitz, chief economist at ITG Investment Research. "You see it in the borrowing numbers. And you see it in the value of private construction put in place."

HIGH SCHOOL GRADS AND DROPUTS LOSING OUT

People who've never been to college — about a third of workers older than 25 — are struggling. More than 200,000 high school drop-outs lost jobs last month. So did 276,000 high school graduates. This group isn't sharing in a recovery in which college has become practically a pre-requisite. Only 54.3 percent of high school grads either have a job or are looking for one. That's down from roughly 60 percent before the recession.

FLAT WAGES

Average weekly paychecks didn't budge in April. They were $838.70, exactly as in March. Stagnant pay could slow growth, since about 70 percent of economic activity comes from consumers. They can't ramp up spending unless their wages rise. "Firms are hiring again, but we still need wages to rise faster if the economy is to really accelerate," said Joel Naroff, president of Naroff Economics.

45,000 MORE MEN WORKING TWO FULL-TIME JOBS

Imagine juggling two-full time jobs. About 198,000 men managed this balancing act last month — a sharp increase of 45,000 year-over-year. True, that's a small share of the 145.7 million working Americans. But it reveals something critical in an economy in which several million Americans can't land one job, let alone two.

The number of Americans with two full-time jobs usually rises when times are flush and reliable employees are hard to find. That's not true now. Nearly 3.5 million people have been jobless for more than six months. When people take a second job, they do benefit financially as individuals. Yet it means someone else is stuck on the unemployment rolls without any job. The trend suggests that many employers are writing off some of the unemployed in favor of those already holding a job.

"That's 45,000 other people who didn't get a job," said Shierholz of the Economic Policy Institute.

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