Apple and Samsung legal fees arranged in a ‘Solomon’-manner

Magistrate Judge Paul Grewal of the US District Court of the Northern District of California found a fair way to deal with the claims of the two e-giants over found violations in the smartphone patent suit concluded in August. Following (perhaps) the wisdom the ancient king Solomon, he ordered Samsung to pay $21,554 in legal fees to Apple, and Apple to pay $160,069 to Samsung (both requests however found significantly less than requested).

Magistrate Grewal also focused onto the overstaffing and “block billing” issue and on how both failed to provide detailed reports about how their attorneys earn such payments, nor about the hours spent on the respective cases. He found the attorneys’ work, and respective billing, “unreasonable” (mildly put). It is therefore that His Honor reduced the high rates drastically.