The Samsung vs. Apple patent war that has been raging since ages – literally speaking – has come up with a new twist. And the latest development has got Samsung pinned to the wall given that it has to fork out $539 million in damages on charges of patent infringement.
The above verdict has been spelled out by the jury in the U.S. District Court in San Jose, California and has held Samsung guilty of infringing on at least five design-related patents held by Apple. The case also applies to the Android-based smartphone devices Samsung sold between the period 2010 and 2011.
More specifically, the bulk of the penalty amount – or $533,316,606 to be precise, relates to Samsung having infringed on three of Apple’s design patents. The rest of the amount which comes to $5,325,050 has to do with infringement on utility patents held by Apple and relates to the way the iPhone of the time functioned.
This should also bring to an end to the court battle that was being closely fought for close to seven years now. In fact, previous court proceedings had already unanimously decided on Samsung being guilty in copying Apple’s patents. The present trial only had to do with the amount that Samsung is required to pay to Apple as damages.
More specifically, the jurors had come together to decide whether the damages would be fixed based on the entire smartphone and the experience it offered as a whole, or the individual components in contention and the functions they served. Apple has been pushing for the former scenario and had accordingly fixed the damages to more than a billion dollars. Samsung, on the other hand, claimed it owed Apple no more than $28 million based on each component and the features it supported.
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Not surprisingly, Apple has been satisfied with the development and said it is pleased in the manner the courts have paid heeds to their viewpoint. Samsung, of course, isn’t so pleased after all and has said they will be exploring all options to ensure creativity and fair play isn’t compromised as competition between companies reaches a feverish pace.
