A nine-person jury in San Jose, California has decided that Samsung did infringe some or all of Apple's patents in question in a long list of mobile devices that include the top-selling Galaxy S II smartphone and Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet.
The jury's decisions were complex, and while some of Samsung's devices were deemed to not infringe Apple's IP, the majority were found to have done so. Most decisively on the question of whether Samsung had "willfully" infringed on Apple's IP, the jury decided that for majority of the mobile devices and patents in question it had done so. No Apple patents were deemed invalid. No Samsung patents were ruled invalid.
The jury also decided that in some instances Samsung violated the trade dress of the iPhone.
Samsung should be liable for a payment of just over $1 billion to Apple, the jury decided, totaling up damages for each infringing device. Apple owes Samsung nothing.
Apple had alleged that Samsung had "slavishly" copied its designs for the iPhone and iPad in various of its mobile devices, whereas Samsung vigorously denied this while arguing Apple had infringed on core patents Samsung owned, and that some of Apple's patents should be ruled invalid.
Apple and Samsung's battle has been protracted, at times weird or bitter, and it's been a little painful for both firms who've seen proprietary information shown to the world that perhaps they'd have preferred to keep private. Both firms' CEOs spoke early this week on order of U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh, but failed to reach an agreement on a settlement.
While the U.S. trial is the highest profile, the two firms have been duking it out in courtrooms across the world, and may well continue to do so. This week a South Korean court ruled that both firms had in fact unfairly exploited the work of the other, and ordered both to pay the other a fine that amounted only to tens of thousands of dollars. The case may, however, have slightly bigger repercussions as some of the devices in question may now be banned from sale in the country...though none of the banned devices are the latest models. In mid-July a U.K. court decided Apple must apologize publicly to Samsung, and in early July Apple actually won a different Californian court case and earned an injunction on imports of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet in the U.S.
The repercussions of the full Apple-Samsung trial will take a while to play out, however, and it seems likely that both sides will try continue to apply different appeal tactics.
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