Samsung to pay $1bn damages to Apple

San Jose, California – A US jury has ruled for electronics giant Apple in its huge smartphone patent infringement case involving South Korean competitor Samsung.

After a year of scorched-earth litigation, a jury decided on Friday that Samsung copied the innovative technology used by Apple to create its iPhone and iPad devices. An appeal is expected.

Samsung has been ordered to pay $1.051bn to Apple in damages, according to the verdict reached by the jury in San Jose, California.

In its lawsuit filed last year, Apple Inc had demanded $2.5bn while accusing Samsung of copying the design technology of iPhones and iPads. Samsung had also filed counterclaims, accusing Apple of infringing on some of its wireless patents.

During closing arguments at the trial, Samsung attorney Charles Verhoeven called Apple’s demand ridiculous and asked the jury to award Samsung $399 million in connection with the countersuits.

The two companies lead the $219bn market for smartphones and computer tablets. They are enmeshed in similar lawsuits in the United Kingdom, Germany and Australia.

The verdict could lead to an outright ban on sales of key Samsung products, and would likely solidify Apple’s dominance of the smartphone and mobile computing market.

A number of companies that, like Samsung, sell smartphones based on Google’s Android operating system may now face further legal challenges from Apple, a company that is already among the largest and most profitable in business history.

The jury deliberated for less than three days before delivering the verdict on seven Apple patent claims and five Samsung patent claims.

Shares in Apple, which just this week became the biggest company by market value in history, climbed almost two per cent to a record high of $675 in after-hours trade.

Brian Love, a Santa Clara law school professor, described it as a crushing victory for Apple: “This is the best-case scenario Apple could have hoped for.”

Apple’s position was that Samsung had willfully copied its products when designing its own range of tablets and Android-powered smartphones. Samsung’s lawyers argued that Apple did not have patent rights over rectangular devices with large screens and rounded corners.

Earlier on Friday, a South Korean court found that both companies shared blame, ordering Samsung to stop selling 10 products including its Galaxy S II phone and banning Apple from selling four different products, including its iPhone 4.

But the trial on Apple’s home turf – the world’s largest and most influential technology market – is considered the most
important.
The companies are rivals, but also have a $5 billion-plus supply relationship. Apple is Samsung’s biggest customer for microprocessors and other parts central to Apple’s devices.

Earlier this year, sales of Samsung’s smartphones outstripped Apple’s for the first time. Together, the two companies account for more than half of all global smartphone sales.

Source: ww.timesofearth.com / Agencies