Samsung, Apple Both Infringed Upon Each Others' Patents, Ordered To Pay Each Other

An eight-person jury on Friday handed back a mixed verdict in the Apple v. Samsung patent-infringement case, determining that both companies were guilty in some aspects but not guilty in others.

Samsung was ordered Friday to pay Apple $119.46 million after a Silicon Valley jury found the South Korean company guilty of copying key features of the iPhone in creating its own line of smartphones. The verdict was a far cry from the $2.2 billion that 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.

washingtonpost.com

The jury even put a damper on the current verdict by also finding that Apple had infringed one of Samsung’s patents in creating the iPhone 4 and 5. The jury awarded Samsung $158,400, skimming that amount from the original $119.62 million verdict. Samsung had sought $6 million.

bostonherald.com

The Korean company was cleared on three out of the five patents and owes Apple an amount that is–by gigantic electronics manufacturer standards–peanuts. (Two years ago, Apple was awarded a more imposing $930 million over a different set of design-related patents.)

time.com

For Apple, the battle isn’t just against Samsung, and it’s not just about money. Steve Jobs was so irate over the degree to which Google’s Android operating system mimicked Apple’s iPhone software that he famously said he was willing to go thermonuclear over it. So far, neither Samsung nor Android seems to have been blasted back into the pre-iPhone stone age.

theverge.com

Still, Apple’s suits–and the scads of other ones between an array of patent holders that have followed it–may have left everybody involved at least slightly more cautious about treading on other companies’ intellectual property. For instance, the products Samsung has released since Apple first filed suit haven’t been the slavish knockoffs they might have been if it had felt free to copy at will.

time.com

“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,” said Brian Love, a Santa Clara University law professor. 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.

washingtonpost.com

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 Thursday.

bostonherald.com

During the month-long 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.

washingtonpost.com

Even with the verdict in, it's not final. Jurors come back next week to determine damages on the Galaxy S2, something that could change the total amount. And even then, it could change once again. Seven months after the first trial wrapped up, Judge Koh trimmed $450.5 million off the original $1.05 billion judgment, and required a retrial for that amount. After the week-long retrial that followed, the final figure was changed to $939.8 million.

theverge.com