Galaxy S3 and iPhone 4S
FORTUNE — When we reported last September that that Apple (AAPL) had added Samsung’s flagship Galaxy S3 to a patent infringement suit scheduled to go on trial in March 2014, some readers thought the trial date was typo.
After all, Apple had filed this second suit — not be confused with the one that ended in August with an award for $1.05 billion in damages– back in February 2012. By March 2014, one reader wrote, Samsung will be on to the Galaxy S5.
That’s precisely what Apple fears — fears compounded by Judge Lucy Koh’s suggestion last month that the March 2014 trial be put on hold until Samsung is through appealing the August verdict.
“I don’t know if we need two cases on this,” she told both sides. (See Apple v. Samsung: Justice delayed is justice denied.)
In a brief filed Thursday, according to Bloomberg, one week to the day before Samsung is scheduled to unveil the Galaxy S4 at New York City’s Radio City Music Hall, Apple responded:
“This case must proceed now in order to stop the ongoing sales — and relentless launch — of Samsung’s latest infringing devices, which have caused, and every day continue to cause, continuing harm to Apple.”
Samsung’s lawyers, not surprisingly, favored Judge Koh’s idea of freezing the second trial. They wrote that it would promote what they call “judicial economy.”
On March 1, Judge Koh cut Apple’s $1.05 award nearly in two, letting $600 million of it stand and ordering a new trial to recalculate damages on the remainder. That trial may also be postponed until appeals from the first are exhausted.
