Expert Says Samsung Should Pay Apple $38m Not $2B

Judith Chevalier, a professor of economics at Yale who was also hired by Samsung, says that Samsung should only pay out–if the company is guilty–$38.4 million rather than the $2.2 billion that Apple is requesting in the courts.

The figure that Chevalier has come up with is based upon a calculation of $1.75 per unit instead of the $40 that Apple is requesting. Since Chevalier could not find any evidence that Apple lost revenue as a result of Samsung’s alleged patent infringement, the amount that should be paid in damages remains far lower than what Apple has put forward.

Apple came to its $40 per device figure based upon its view that if it and Samsung had worked out a patent licensing deal, that is the amount that would have been agreed upon. However, since a deal was never created, the court cannot really rely on what Apple says it would have agreed upon with Samsung.

The case being made by Apple is also based upon the notion that the five patents in question played a major role in making Samsung’s devices successful. However, Chevalier’s findings directly go against that notion.

Other experts and members of the industry have spoken out in regards to Apple’s claims and its $2.2 billion figure, meaning that Chevalier is just making things official on behalf of Samsung, which is currently fighting its battle in court and can only benefit from extra analysis of the situation.

We have to conclude that the differences in profitability across these products is being driven by something else other than the practice of these patents…The value created by these products is really negligible. – Chevalier

Apple has already fought back against the analysis, with Attorney Bill Lee asking how it is that Chevalier thinks that Apple doesn’t deserve any lost profits. Of course, it is Apple that has to prove that it directly lost sales as a result of the infringement, something that it is not easy to do.